Creativity quotes
3.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside creativity — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"I’m not very creative” doesn’t work. There’s no such thing as creative people and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who don’t. Unused creativity doesn’t just disappear. It lives within us until it’s expressed, neglected to death, or suffocated by resentment and fear."
"But harmony is limitation. Thus rightness of limitation is essential for growth of reality. Unlimited possibility and abstract creativity can procure nothing."
"Perhaps creativity is fumbling that dance step, or driving the chisel the wrong way into the stone."
"I'm crafting a vision of my life that involves creativity. And Cuban society allows me to do this. I know it's harder in the U.S. where so many people are just grateful to have a job."
"You can't manage creativity. You need to manage for creativity. You need to create the space for it to emerge."
"Conscience doth make cowards of us all."
"Have patience, and endure"
"Our creation is the modification of relationship."
"I always believed that my work should be unfinished in the sense that I encourage people to add their creativity to it, either conceptually or physically. Back in the 1960s, I was calling for 'Unfinished Music,' number one, and number two, with my artwork - I was taking unfinished work into the gallery. And that's how I was looking at it."
"I want to be like Solomon, and instead of asking for riches ask for wisdom and creativity."
"The two terrors that discourage creativity and creative living are fear of public opinion and undue reverence for one's own consistency."
"That which builds is better than that which is built."
"In our fine arts, not imitation, but creation is the aim... The details, the prose of nature, he should omit, and give us only the spirit and splendour."
"My life is a creative act--like a painting, or a concerto."
"Often whole days pass without my speaking to anyone."
"All creative work, all life in a sense, is a cri de coeur."
"Any carefully planned thing destroys the creativity. You can't think your way through a story; you have to live it. So, you don't build a story; you allow it to explode."
"And to get the work done that I must do, one has to work in isolation and not be readily disturbed... I don't have daily newspapers, and I like to feel when I get up in the morning my attention is fixed on the work I am going to do."
"What I like about non-fiction is that it covers such a huge territory. The best non-fiction is also creative"
"An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally."
