Quotes on Creativity

Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it 'creative observation.' Creative viewing.

Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about… say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from before the beginning of the universe.

The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.

If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it.

...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?

A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.

Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.

The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.

Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.

I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.

One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten, - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.

What is Art? It is the response of man's creative soul to the call of the Real.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate these young [Israeli] designers. There's too much strife in the world. If we become united in our creativity, not only in what we wear, but what we do, we will change the world. It's truly an honor to be around such inspiration.

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

I'm lost in a transition. The old is dead, and I don't know what the new is. The only way to find the new is to start different things and see if there's something that can come out of experimentation. It's somewhat unsettling, but it's a hopeful thing in a way. I've been here before, lots of times.

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.