Creativity Quotes

Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading.

A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.

The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.

Sculpture, a very noble art, is one that does not in the execution require the same supreme ingenuity as the art of painting, since in two most important and difficult particulars, in foreshortening and in light and shade... the painter has to invent a process, [whereas] sculpture is helped by nature.

An artist's studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it.

Perspective is to painting what the bridle is to the horse, the rudder to a ship.

It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.

It should not be hard for you to stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud or like places, in which...you may find really marvellous ideas.

There are three aspects to perspective. The first has to do with how the size of objects seems to diminish according to distance: the second, the manner in which colors change the farther away they are from the eye; the third defines how objects ought to be finished less carefully the farther away they are.

Those men who are inventors and interpreters between Nature and Man, as compared with boasters and declaimers of the works of others, must be regarded and not otherwise esteemed than as the object in front of a mirror, when compared with its image seen in the mirror.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

To end poverty, to extirpate prejudice, to free a tormented conscience, to make a tomorrow of justice, fair play, and creativity-all these are worthy of the American ideal.

Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it.

Painting is the same kind of problem as unfolding a long, sustained interlocked argument... It is a proposition commanded by a single unity of conception.

There is no limit to the ingenuity of man if it is properly and vigorously applied under conditions of peace and justice.

Life is too short not to create something with every breath we draw.

When I have a creative insight, there is a high. I think back in the day, I made music as much as I did because it made me feel so good. I think you could argue that there is a creative addiction - but, you know, the healthy kind.

It's difficult because we live in a world that doesn't really respect the creative and intellectual contributions of women. It's more like 'Oh, you're so cute. Be quiet. Shhh, don't talk too much.

I think if you write from your own gut, you'll come up with something interesting, whereas if you sit around guessing what people want, you end up with the kind of same schlock that everybody else has got.

I do other projects-I'm building an outdoor model-train layout, which has been a lot of fun. It just takes me away into another world. There's no pressure to it. I have a buddy who helps me build it. We spend days and days and days and weeks and months on these. If you're stuck, you've got to get out of it. You've got to get way out of it.