“It is very important to know how to unleash people’s inborn creativity. My concept is that anybody has creative ability, but very few people know how to use it.” — Akio Morita
“A young person with the right talents needs to have infinite desire and never give up. I apply a simple test with young students: smash a teapot into pieces and then hand out the glue. Those who rebuild the teapot won’t make it, those who create phantasy animals and spaceships will. ” — Hartmut Esslinger (founder of frog design)
“Creativity is a lot like looking at the world through a kaleidoscope. You look at a set of elements, the same ones everyone else sees, but then reassemble those floating bits and pieces into an enticing new possibility. ” — Rosabeth Moss Kanter
“Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self.” — Erich Fromm
“Creating one thing at a certain point in the river feeds those who come to the river, feeds creatures far downstream, yet others in the deep. Creativity is not a solitary movement. That is its power. Whatever is touched by it, whoever hears it, sees it, senses it, knows it, is fed. That is why beholding someone else’s creative word, image, idea, fills us up, inspires us to our own creative work. A single creative act has the potential to feed a continent. One creative act can cause a torrent to break through stone.”
— Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.”
— William Pollard
“One has reached the ultimate levels of creativity when one has mastered a skill so thoroughly that it can be forgotten. Look at heaven and earth. Do they think about creating the weather, the seasons, and the cycles of growing? They only go on revolving according to their nature, and the rest is generated without any thought or work on their part. This is truly effortless action and is considered the highest skill that a follower of Tao can attain.” — Deng Ming Dao
“The recognition and understanding of the need was the primary condition of the creative act. When people feel they had to express themselves for originality for its own sake, that tends not to be creativity. Only when you get into the problem and the problem becomes clear, can creativity take over.”
— Charles Eames
“Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” — John Updike
“Living creatively is really important to maintain throughout your life. And living creatively doesn’t mean only artistic creativity, although that’s part of it. It means being yourself, not just complying with the wishes of other people.” — Matt Groening
“Most of what you will create is for your enrichment or is a stepping stone to other better, more insightful work. Maybe once or twice in a lifetime you will be recognized with the kudos of the public, so in the meantime, create for yourself.” –Don Hahn
“But, if you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you create yourself.” — Carl Gustav Jung
Most of my broken pots end up in the garden helping to mulch the plants. I keep wanting to do some mosaics, but never get to doing any. There’s a woman at the craft market who makes beautiful mosaic tables and things, really inspirational pieces.
I suppose I’ve actually been the most creative at putting the broken bits of myself back together again. It’s been years since then, and somehow I’m never depressed anymore, rarely down. It seems sometimes when you build something new from the broken pieces, it can become even stronger and more whole than before. Strange, but true. Sometimes all you need is some glue…
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I like compare it to the process of making a good soup from the scraps of things you find in the fridge and cupboard. None of them by themselves are worth much and may not even be appetizing but mixed together in the proper proportion and timing and you can create a glorious bowl of nourishing soup. Almost something from nothing.
Reminds me of the story “Stone Soup”. I loved that story as a kid — we did it as a play in I think second grade or so…
I like this post.
I particularly like the Updike quote. I have long seen a sort of elitism, if you will, in discussions of “talent.”
This is a great collection of quotes on creativity. I especially liked the ones from Charles Eames and Deng Ming Dao
FYI, the full quote from John Updike (from an essay on creativity in 1968 Playboy):
“For one thing, creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity; the ditchdigger, dentist, and artist go about their tasks in much the same way, and any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better.”