quotations about creativity
The search for knowledge about creativity is linked with magic, the demonic, and the divine, yet such knowledge is at the forefront of rational inquiry. Creativity is paradoxical and complex, and the most steadfast investigator is constantly beset with feelings of awe and a sense of mystery as he pursues his inquiry. Creativity encompasses the magical incantations and drawings of primitive man, the appearance of new forms in nature, and the evil genius of Faust. It is a human capacity but it seems to transcend human capacities.
ALBERT ROTHENBERG
The Creativity Question
Man owes his success to his creativity. No one doubts the need for it. It is most useful in good times and essential in bad.
EDWARD DE BONO
Lateral Thinking for Management
The chief enemy of creativity is "good" taste.
PABLO PICASSO
attributed, Wisdom for the Soul
Creative power is that receptive attitude of expectancy which makes a mold into which the plastic and as yet undifferentiated substance can flow and take the desired form.
THOMAS TROWARD
The Creative Process in the Individual
Creativity exists in the searching even more than in the finding or being found.
STEPHEN NACHMANOVITCH
Free Play
The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.
AGNES DE MILLE
attributed, Witty Words from Wise Women
When you make music or write or create, it's really your job to have mind-blowing, irresponsible, condomless sex with whatever idea it is you're writing about at the time.
LADY GAGA
Pop Dirt, March 9, 2009
Without freedom, there is no creation.
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI
On Freedom
The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
Forbes Magazine, Sep. 15, 1974
Creativity perpetually invents itself.
PAUL PALNIK
Creative Consciousness
Creativity is part of what makes us human. Our nearest relatives, chimpanzees and other primates, are often quite intelligent but never reach these high levels of performance. And although advanced "artificially intelligent" computer programs hold the world title in chess, and can crunch through mounds of data and identify patterns invisible to the human eye, they still cannot master everyday creative skills.
ROBERT KEITH SAWYER
Explaining Creativity
Creativity ... consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know.
GEORGE KNELLER
attributed, Quotes about Creativity
Creativity means not copying.
FERRAN ADRIÀ
Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2011
Creativity means learning where the rules exist, and then breaking them! Saying, "It's better this way." But you have to know the rules in order to break them with any grace.
ALAN ARKIN
New Mexico Magazine, Jun. 2011
Human creativity uses what is already existing and available and changes it in unpredictable ways.
SYLVANO ARIETI
Creativity: The Magic Synthesis
As the world of creativeness finds itself at the outset placed in the midst of opposition and bound at the same time to proceed on its own course, then it becomes clear that this new world when it becomes a whole and governs all cannot remain permanently within the realm of such stubborn opposites: it must, without giving up its independence, yet return to the world which it had left behind and must attempt to penetrate into it; it must do this most of all on account of the fact that its own development is at stake, for only by some such understanding with things outside itself only by means of a struggle with its oppositions can the life of creativeness in man find its way from the great outlines of its ideal-plan to a full and essential development.
RUDOLF EUCKEN
Knowledge and Life
Creativity is a condition of our species. We invent procedures, alter behaviors, develop new systems, and create new knowledge to increase our likelihood of survival and fulfillment. Human creativity is an extension or another expression of our biological imperative to procreate.
MARCI SEGAL
Creativity and Personality Type
The creative personality never remains fixed on the first world it discovers. It never resigns itself to anything.
ANAIS NIN
The Novel of the Future
I don't know where creativity comes from, but I think everybody has the ability to be creative. I think what's important about creativity starts when you're very young and how we're allowed to experience our imagination. The people who bring us up and teach us are fundamental in either encouraging creativity or discourging creativity. My imagination was always encouraged.
LYLE LOVETT
The Hartford Courant, Nov. 18, 2011
Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
SCOTT ADAMS
The Dilbert Principle