Top 100 On Creativity Quotes
#1. You don't base records on success; you base it on creativity.
Nikki Sixx
#2. Writing starts with living.
- Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing
L.L. Barkat
#4. Prioritization provides a framework for focusing on creativity.
Pearl Zhu
#5. The foremost challenge is that of the knowledge revolution. Economic power will depend on creativity and innovation. Creation of wealth will move from traditional resources to the one asset: knowledge.
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh
#6. Small developers can compete on creativity not on scale or staff size ... Nintendo is willing to help bring these ideas to life,
Satoru Iwata
#7. You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
What mood is that?
Last-minute panic.
Bill Watterson
#8. I think an artist can fit under a few different categories depending on how much you explore your creativity. It can vary from artist to artist from musician to performer to vocalist. I thrive on creativity. So in the long run I want to be an all around entertainer.
Christina Aguilera
#9. Self-censorship, whether known or unknown, is an unwelcome brake on creativity; it stifles self-expression and hence prevents a work from reaching the heights of great art.
Semir Zeki
#10. The human spirit lives on creativity and dies in conformity and routine.
Vilayat Inayat Khan
#11. I'm very critical of political parties. I don't think they're needed in the world as it is now. They impede the development of individuals, they encroach on creativity and they impose absurd structures of discipline.
Manuela Carmena
#12. Our students sometimes use their creativity to do wrong things, and we therefore conclude that we must keep them from being creative. But evil cannot be blamed on creativity. (p31)
Donovan L. Graham
#13. We will need to find people who will provide a safe writing space for us, where criticism comes late and love and delight come early.
- from Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing
L.L. Barkat
#15. Working on films where the money's more important than the creativity, I just get a bit freaked out by that. I just don't feel comfortable.
Guy Pearce
#16. Creativity involves missteps and imperfections. I wanted our people to get comfortable with that idea - that both the organization and its members should be willing, at times, to operate on the edge.
Ed Catmull
#17. Teaching creativity to your child isn't like teaching good manners. No one can paint a masterpiece by bowing to another person's precepts about elbows on the table.
Gurney Williams
#18. Timid young artists, adding parental fears to their own, often give up their sunny dreams of artistic careers, settling into the twilight world of could-have-beens and regrets.
Julia Cameron
#19. In his creative work the artist is dependent on sources and resources deriving from the spiritual unconscious.
Viktor E. Frankl
#20. I've never been a very prolific person, so when creativity flows, it flows. I find myself scribbling on little notepads and pieces of loose paper, which results in a very small portion of my writings to ever show up in true form.
Kurt Cobain
#21. I hope that I capture something in my work that is about the elusive, the magical and powerful and the transformative. The writing in itself is transformative for me.
H. Raven Rose
#22. We write not just to show off, not just to tell, or only to have written. We write to know ourselves.
Jane Yolen
#23. Creativity thrives on a consistent diet of challenges and opportunities, which are often one and the same.
Lee Clow
#24. And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.
Alice Walker
#25. Common Core reminds us what testing can do right. Modeled on standards of the world's education superpowers, questions demand critical thinking and creativity. Students are asked to write at length, show their work, and explain their reasoning.
Wendy Kopp
#26. We nurture our creativity when we release our inner child. Let it run and roam free. It will take you on a brighter journey.
Serina Hartwell
#27. If you stick in the business of being creative, you get hurt. And creative disappointment seems so much harder to take than any other kind. But if you're not prepared to get hurt like that, life can be pretty boring. I think I'm going to keep on going.
Chuck Barris
#28. People might think you can turn creativity on and off,
but it's not like that. It just kind of comes out. A mash up of all these things you collect in your mind. You never know when it's gonna happen, but when it does ... it's like magic.
It's just that simple and it's just that hard.
Gwen Stefani
#29. The greatest moments of creativity come in absolute solitude, when one's mind is free from distraction and able to probe the depths of the impossible.
Fennel Hudson
#30. I find that when you lead with vision and values, engaging employees and showing them that values are just as important as profits, everyone comes on board. And not only do they come on board, but they connect to their own individual creativity.
Shari Arison
#31. We know that behind every image revealed there is another image more faithful to reality, and in the back of that image there is another, and yet another behind the last one, and so on, up to the true image of that absolute, mysterious reality that no one will ever see.
Michelangelo Antonioni
#32. Forget about being an expert or a professional, and wear your amateurism (your heart, your love) on your sleeve. Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.
Austin Kleon
#33. Imagination is the hood ornament on your car of creativity.
Gary Busey
#34. We can learn that reward comes in creation and re-creation, no just in the consumption of the world around us. Active participation in the process of creation is our right and our privilege. We can learn to measure the success of our ideas not by our bank accounts by their impact on the world.
Tim Brown
#35. When we learn to eat properly we begin to rebuild our bodies and to fulfill our purpose on this planet to grow in health, creativity, wisdom, and compassion.
Ann Wigmore
#36. Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler did not solve an old problem, they asked a new question, and in doing so they changed the whole basis on which the old questions had been framed.
Ken Robinson
#37. It's well-documented that stress and low self-confidence are detrimental to productivity, especially on tasks requiring creative thinking. Maintaining a healthy exercise routine saves time, creativity, and energy in the long run.
Timur Zhiyentayev
#38. Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking we can get on with creating the future.
Jimmy Bertrand
#39. Nothing will destroy creativity thought faster than judging the value of the idea on the spot.
Wendy Oldfield
#40. Not so long ago people believed in ideologies, systems, and institutions to save all societies. Today, they have given up such hopes and have returned to relying on the individual, on individual freedom, individual initiative, individual creativity.
Dalai Lama
#41. To be in Florence is to reflect on Europe's intricate diversity - and its lost creativity.
Timothy Garton Ash
#42. Store up knowledge. Then question your own knowledge in order to expand your mind, both to build and to create more space. Then store up more knowledge. And so on. That is wisdom.
Criss Jami
#43. Today, on a per capita basis, Israel far leads the world in research and technological creativity.
George Gilder
#44. It seems there's a sliding scale between the money they spend on a movie and its creativity.
Nicholas Lea
#45. I try never to say no when it comes to creativity, but I do try and lead down an "appropriate road" - like not on furniture or the walls.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
#46. When I listen to music from different eras, I sense different things. The 1940s music, there's so much optimism and romance, maybe because they just solved the biggest problem on Earth at that time - World War II. In the 1960s, there was so much creativity and innovation in sound.
Eric Betzig
#47. I'm interested in doing anything and everything that I can to squeeze the creativity out of my brain. I guess I'm kind of a performance rat, that's what I want to do, I love being on stage if I'm not on a set. I just love putting creativity into a performance.
Dane Cook
#48. We can create transcending stories for readers and for us. Creativity is a double edge sword, which can kill the writer.
Rossana Condoleo
#49. I don't claim to be an expert on this, but I think ADD and creativity may be the same thing; it's just that they can't sell you drugs for being creative. Seriously, the world needs people whose minds constantly wander, because that's how great ideas are stumbled upon.
Hal Elrod
#50. I don't rehearse on either of my shows, 'Family Feud' or my talk show. I never rehearse with the guests. I don't want to have any preconceived thoughts, notions, because that kills my creativity as a host and as a stand up.
Steve Harvey
#51. I don't want to say that the creativity would give out - I can't imagine what argument I would bring forward for that. But I think that there's something on the individual level that's a limitation.
Todd May
#52. While some rules are necessary and good for us, living a life based on others' rules, needs, and expectations can stifle your self-expression and creativity, and keep a lid on your potential.
Lauren Mackler
#53. True creativity is characterized by a succession of acts each dependent on the one before and suggesting the one after.
Edwin Land
#54. Arthur V. Berger commenting on the music of Aaron Copland: Here is at last an American that we may place unapologetically beside the great recognized creative figures of any other country.
Aaron Copland
#55. Fear causes people to draw back from situations. It brings on mediocrity, it dulls creativity, it sets one up to be a loser in life.
Fran Tarkenton
#56. I write a chapter, then edit it and edit it and edit it and edit it. I don't think we mine creativity from within. It's bestowed from on high, from God.
Ann Voskamp
#57. Writer's block is just another name for fear.
Jacob Nordby
#58. When creativity has become your habit; when you've learned to manage time, resources, expectations, and the demands of others; when you understand the value and place of validation, continuity, and purity of purpose, then you're on the way to an artist's ultimate goal; the achievement of mastery.
Twyla Tharp
#59. Up on the Brooklyn Bridge a man is standing in agony, waiting to jump, or waiting to write a poem, or waiting for the blood to leave his vessels because if he advances another foot the pain of his love will kill him.
Henry Miller
#60. Your mood doesn't really matter. Some of the best creative work gets done on the days when you feel that everything you're doing is just plain junk.
Julia Cameron
#61. Keep a note pad and pencil on your bedside table. Million-dollar ideas sometimes strike at 3 A.M.
H. Jackson Brown Jr.
#62. We embrace the shoestring budget. We like being limited by the constraints. It inspires creativity. I don't know what we would spend money on. We don't hire actors. We see budget constraints as a personal challenge. We're like survivalist local commercial directors.
Charles Lincoln Neal
#63. We want to build things that encourage creativity and exploration. We're working to build a company focused on sustainable, creative and fulfilling game development. It's aimed at making a positive difference in our lives, as well as the lives of our people.
Robin Hunicke
#64. Life is energy, and energy is creativity. And even when individuals pass on, the energy is retained in the work of art, locked in it and awaiting release if only someone will take the time and the care to unlock it.
Marianne Moore
#65. Made from divinity must mean mindstate to create is intrinsic - no fiction. Stop playin' with your power, your inner 'G', and build on purpose - accordingly. Being free is for free, so force the issue.
T.F. Hodge
#66. Every artist joins a conversation that's been going on for generations, even millennia, before he or she joins the scene.
John Barth
#67. My parents always pushed creativity on us, but they made it seem like the fun thing to do.
Gwen Stefani
#68. When I am ... completely myself, entirely alone ... or during the night when I cannot sleep, it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how these ideas come I know not nor can I force them.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
#69. When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem.
R. Buckminster Fuller
#70. Creativity in all forms of life, from arts to business to domestic situations, depends on our ability to recognize and explore gaps
Itay Talgam
#71. I always put a little bit of restrictions on myself, and I only do it for my creativity.
Sune Rose Wagner
#72. Rule books tell people what to do. Frameworks guide people how to act. Rule books insist on discipline. Frameworks allow for creativity.
Simon Sinek
#73. Computers are quiet and clean and totally distracting because the Internet is there, lying in wait for a moment of weakness to pounce on your creativity and progress.
Arlaina Tibensky
#74. Having to make a blockbuster every time puts unhealthy pressure on creatives. The pressure on the filmmakers is so intense, I think it stifles the creativity.
Henry Selick
#75. Creativity is the mother of all energies, nurturer of your most alive self. It charges up every part of you. When you're plugged in, a spontaneous combustion occurs that 'artists' don't have a monopoly on.
Judith Orloff
#76. Could I have worked under a system where there were Draconian controls on my creativity, meaning budget, time, script choices, etc.? Definitely not. I would have fared poorly under the old studio system that guys like Howard Hawks did so well in. I cannot.
Michael Mann
#77. Because optimal experience depends on the ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
#78. When you define your goals, you give your brain something new to look for and focus on. It's as if you're giving your mind a new set of eyes from which to see all the people, circumstances, conversations, resources, ideas, and creativity surrounding you.
Darren Hardy
#79. I wonder whether there has been too much emphasis on teaching women to conform, to fit into the system. Certainly that suits conservative organizations in conservative times. But now ... innovation and creativity are necessary.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
#80. Creativity is secondary, meditation is basic and fundamental; everything should come out of your meditation. Then it will give you a beatitude, your being a new song, and it will help others to experience something of it. It will depend on their meditativeness.
Rajneesh
#81. Never fear having your ideas stolen. Your creative idea is a image you are painting like a picture on a canvas, they may "steal" your idea, however they cannot steal your paints.
Sumner Davenport
#82. Silence leads us back to our purpose, and it ignites creativity and vision.
Angela Lynne Craig
#83. Creativity starts with a little touch of insanity and culminates with the highest trust on its beauty, but throughout it maintains the hands of originality,humanity and ALMIGHTY.
Anuj
#84. When the vision fill yours mind and passio hits your gut, the need to write it down cannot be stifled.
Marti Melville
#85. So much of our mythology around money centers on the illusion that if we had 'more,' we would be more comfortable and more able to access our creativity. But creativity and prosperity are spiritual matters, not fiscal ones.
Julia Cameron
#86. Creative people, especially those who are just starting out, feel that they have to conform and be a mass-produced product in order to be noticed. The truth of the matter is that genuineness and unconventionality is often what helps make a mark on the world.
Veronika Carnaby
#87. I'm doing the absolute opposite of giving myself away. As far as I'm concerned, I'll be completely visible. If the painting sells, I'll be in Paris, hanging on a wall. If anything, I'm being selfish. It's perfect; all the freedom of creation, with none of the fuss.
Jessie Burton
#88. Unprecedented technological capabilities combined with unlimited human creativity have given us tremendous power to take on intractable problems like poverty, unemployment, disease, and environmental degradation. Our challenge is to translate this extraordinary potential into meaningful change.
Muhammad Yunus
#89. The way popular music is categorized and formatted cuts down on everyone's options. And although people don't talk about it, there are a lot of issues of race determining musical categories of what's rock, R&B, or even folk. It ends up restricting creativity.
Tracy Chapman
#90. I think the 19th century is an extraordinary period with a welling up of creativity and all kinds of experimentation and exploration going on at least until 1940.
Edmund Phelps
#91. Don't go through life with a closed mind. Allow innovations and creativity to flow. We should always challenge ourselves to excel in more ways than one. Be open to ideas or suggestions on how to improve. And, the chances of reaching your goals will increase enormously.
Amaka Imani Nkosazana
#92. In my view, the novelist has no right to express his opinions on the things of this world. In creating, he must imitate God: do his job and then shut up.
Gustave Flaubert
#93. Genre expectations can kill creativity. If you do something different, it will get hated. The best filmmakers can do everything on the approval list and knock it out of the park. For me, I have a hard time being creative when I have to color in between the lines.
David Ayer
#94. Whether it is considered from the viewpoint of its effect on society, or as one of the expressions of the human spirit, creativity stands out as an activity to be studied, cherished, and cultivated.
Silvano Arieti
#95. While art thrives on the blazing colours of scandal, literature blossoms on the dark soil of tragedy.
E.A. Bucchianeri
#96. Usually, when we talk about creativity, it's about self-expression, which is great, but for work to be art or design, there has to be someone on the other end. The audience makes the work come alive.
Austin Kleon
#97. I never set out to create a technique. I started out on the floor to find myself, to find what the body could do, and what would give me satisfaction - emotionally, dramatically and bodily. But I did not ever dream of establishing a technique. I still can't believe anything like that happened.
Martha Graham
#98. Anytime I have an idea, I'll make sure that I put it down so that when we do sit down to write an album, I don't have to dream it all out of thin air. I don't have to be creative on the spur of the moment, or spontaneously artistic. I just take advantage of whenever creativity strikes.
Neil Peart
#99. I think people place limitations on each other and on ourselves. There is a great fear of expressing ourselves, of making creativity happen.
Yoko Ono
#100. The capacity to work feeds on itself and has its own course of development. This is what artists have going for them.
Anne Truitt
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