Quotes About Creativity

The idea that writers write books that have absolutely nothing to do with their personalities or lives, I think, is false. Your raw material is yourself. There is nothing else to draw on.

van Vogt is not a giant as often maintained. He's only a pygmy using a giant typewriter

There is no such thing as a story. The words on paper are only instructions used by each reader to create a story. The story itself exists in the reader's mind and nowhere else. And it is different for each reader, because no two people have the same experience, background, training, interests, and so on.

Sturgeon's definition of science fiction—"[a story] which would not have happened at all without its scientific content.

Science Fiction is what I point to and say "That's science fiction.

Being a writer of 'literary fiction' means going on and on about something long after the reader has gotten the idea. ...Dan Ahearn

It's the first thing I tell my students: If you could understand, really understand, that no one needs to read your work, then your writing would improve vastly by the time we meet in this classroom again.

I write because I read. I imagine many of us are this way, bewildered in the tangle of these activities: writing to understand how better to read, reading to understand how better to write."-Dan Beachy-Quick

I don't think anyone wants to write a book that people don't like, but you have to write the book you want to write. You have to be true to yourself and hope that people will respond to that.

I think my strength comes from being an insane drunk. Near death. Wanting death like a lover every day for years. My talent comes from madness - having survived madness.

This nonsense about writers who are boozers and conceive their best work while half-jacked is simply crap. No writer can write drunk. It's impossible.

Being pretentious is rarely harmful to anyone. Accusing others of it is. You can use the word "pretentious" as a weapon with which to bludgeon other people's creative efforts, but in shutting them down the accusation will shatter in your hand and out will bleed your own insecurities, prejudices, and unquestioned assumptions.

Why can't a musician try to make a cinematic "state of the nation" poem told through dream imagery and pop music? They may fail miserably or they may fluke a masterpiece, but at least they tried to push their creativity. As Howard Devoto, of the bands Buzzcocks and Magazine, put it: "Pretentiousness is interesting. At least you're making an effort. Your ambition has to outstrip your ability at some point.

The fable of the Emperor's New Clothes is brought up time and again, a conspiracy to dupe someone, a pretense designed to make the innocent or gullible look stupid. It's a narcissistic paranoia; most artists don't have the time or money to bother playing such a prank and are far more concerned with spending their days pursuing ideas in the studio, however absurd those ideas may appear to others.

I think that someone should do a version of Die Hard in heroic couplets.

The movie industry is committed to working with the technology sector to find innovative new ways to deliver entertainment to consumers.

Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near-perfect method of writing avoidance.

swarmed by bats, abducted by aliens, sprayed with poison gas, had stuff dropped on our heads . . . ," said Coke. "And all of these things actually happened?" asked Dr. McDonald. "You didn't make any of it up?" "Yes, it all happened!" Pep shouted at him. "And a lot of other stuff, too. You could fill a—" "Book!" Dr. McDonald said, his eyes suddenly wide.

The Most Genius Idea!

Fiction is what you get when you rub two things together," I said. Everybody laughed even though I didn't say anything funny.

Courtesy of Dan Gutman and Jim Paillot DAN GUTMAN has

school? When we got to the all-porpoise

Yeah, if Mickey Mouse was a mass murderer.

Let's say each one of these glue sticks is a wheel