Creative Act Quotes

“Create. Not for the money. Not for the fame. Not for the recognition. But for the pure joy of creating something and sharing it.”
― Ernest Barbaric

“Creative people, as I see them, are distinguished by the fact that they can live with anxiety, even though a high price may be paid in terms of insecurity, sensitivity, and defenselessness for the gift of the “divine madness,” to borrow the term used by the classical Greeks. They do not run away from non-being, but by encountering and wrestling with it, force it to produce being. They knock on silence for an answering music; they pursue meaninglessness until they can force it to mean.”
― Rollo May, The Courage to Create

“Whatever the source of emotion that drives me to create, I want to give it a form which has some connection with the visible world, even if it is only to wage war on that world....I want my paintings to be able to defend themselves to resist the invader, just as though there were razor blades on all surfaces so no one could touch them without cutting his hands.”
― Pablo Picasso

“All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone.. the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”
― Marcel Duchamp

“Truly creative people care little about what they have done, and a lot about what they are doing.”
― Alan Cohen

“I like to remind people that creativity also isn't a spark; it's a slog. Every artist, inventor, designer, writer, or other creative in the world will talk about his work being an iterative experience. He'll start with one idea, shape it, move it, combine it, break it, begin anew, discover something within himself, see a new vision, go at it again, test it, share it, fix it, break it, hone it, hone it, hone it, hone it. This might sound like common sense, but it's not common practice, and that's why so many people are terribly uncreative - they're not willing to do the work required to create something that's beautiful, useful, desirable, celebrated. No masterpiece was shaped or written in a day. It's a long slog to get something right. This knowledge and willingness to iterate is what makes the world's most creative people so creative (and successful).”
― Brendon Burchard, The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive

“Creativity is a magic wand that works two ways. When you set it in action and seek to create something, it does not just brings into existence that object or work, it also raises in your heart a dream, a hope, and a will to achieve that creation. And when all else seems lost and steeped in hopelessness, the magic of creativity can still keep you going. For when all else seem dark, an urge to create something would still give you an aim to look forward to. And if you just take hold of this urge, it will take hold of you and see you through even the darkest times. Like it did to me.”
― Jyoti Arora

“The creative act of the artist lifts him above himself by demanding full surrender. No one puts words on paper or paint on canvas, doubting. If one doubts, one does so five minutes later...”
― Czesław Miłosz, Native Realm: A Search for Self-Definition

“By the creative act, however, we are able to reach beyond our own death. This is why creativity is so important and why we need to confront the problem of the relationship between creativity and death.”
― Rollo May, The Courage to Create

“The concept of encounter also enables us to make clearer the important distinction between talent and creativity. Talent may well have its neurological correlates and can be studied as “given” to a person. A man or woman may have talent whether he or she uses it or not; talent can probably be measured in the person as such. But creativity can be seen only in the act. If we were purists, we would not speak of a “creative person,” but only of a creative act.”
― Rollo May, The Courage to Create

“Every authentic artist is engaged in this creating of the conscience of the race, even though he or she may be unaware of the fact. The artist is not a moralist by conscious intention, but is concerned only with hearing and expressing the vision within his or her own being. But out of the symbols the artist sees and creates—as Giotto created the forms for the Renaissance—there is later hewn the ethical structure of the society.”
― Rollo May, The Courage to Create

“A creative person aspires to devote the core state of their mind fixated upon performing the surge of work that expresses the raw passion driving an evolving notion of their quintessence.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Empathy is a creative act. It is the act of imagining ourselves not only in another's shoes, but perhaps inhabiting their very heart and soul.”
― Michele Jennae

“.. be more Creative,
every Day, every Hours, every Minutes or every Seconds and if possible every MOMENT :)”
― krvishal

“Theater is the crucible where we can create the dynamics of life without suffering the flames of their combustion.”
― Tom Althouse, The Frowny Face Cow

“Oftentimes, our hands are more creative than our minds.”
― John Joclebs Bassey, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“The art institution can believe in another world or narrative and make this visual. And yet too often institutions are happy to parrot the accepted stories. Institutions will always deserve the trouble they receive if they cannot be more imaginative in their responses than to speak with the voice of expertise to their audiences. Administration can be a creative endeavor. What and whom do they administer to? [written by Anthony Elms]”
― Paper Monument, As radical, as mother, as salad, as shelter: What should art institutions do now?

“In balancing each desired goal with the contradiction contained therein, we cause our thought to be re-born at the very point from which all creation manifests.”
― Laurence Galian, Beyond Duality: The Art of Transcendence