Author Information
On Creativity, etc.
Folder:
Quotes 
Things are there to be tried, and unless we try them how will we ever get to know whether or not they work?
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Creativity often leads down dark, unlit corridors that go to nowhere certain. Those too afraid of the dark to explore these areas of life will have to suffice with imitation-and will never reach their true creative potential.
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Creative valor grows by daring – fear grows when we hold ourselves back.
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There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence transform a yellow spot into the sun. – Pablo Picasso.
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Most people will go through life only seeing what they are prepared to see. Creative people go through life prepared to see it all.
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Most of us are content to wait until we are inspired before starting. Others start in the knowledge that action will always generate inspiration.
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Creative ideas breed like rabbits – all one needs is a pretty pair to get the process rolling.
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If you are going to make a living on the proceeds of your creativity it’s better to grow a thick skin than to buy an expensive suit.
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Creative people are often accused of having delusions of grandeur, often by people with delusions of adequacy.
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When you go to the fountain of knowledge, do you drink or just gargle?
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Creative people would rather spend half their life making mistakes than spend it doing nothing.
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When a person becomes known for their originality, it is something that will stick with them for the rest of their lives, like a marriage, for better or for worse, whether they like it or not.
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Creative people are the way they are because they are driven by the need to communicate, to share, and to make themselves understood. These things drive them more than any desire for respect or praise.
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It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything – Virginia Woolf.
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No one has ever written, painted, sculpted, modeled, built, or invented except literally to get out of hell – Antonin Artaud.
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Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them – Arthur Schopenhauer.
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Don’t listen to those who say, “you’re taking too big a chance.” Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don’t listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says that they’re all smarter than you out there. They’re more talented, they’re taller, blonder, prettier, luckier, and they have connections. I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you’ll be a person worthy of your own respect – Neil Simon.
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All the reasons in the world why you cannot do something can be effectively outweighed by a single reason why you can - all that is required is to create that reason.
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The truly creative people out there have the ability to make us feel that we too can become truly creative.
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There is no philosophy available that will help a person to become creative when they insist on always doubting their ability to do so.
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* Image by Andi Butler.
* All the above quotes are taken from the book "A Thosuand Paths to Creativity, by David Baird.
