“The true artist has no public; he works for the sheer joy of it, with an element of playfulness, of casualness. Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-consciousness. Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 140)
Creation Quotes
“[Hemingway] would always end a writing session only when he knew what came next in the story. Instead of exhausting every last idea and bit of energy, he would stop when the next plot point became clear. This meant that the next time he sat down to work on his story, he knew exactly where to start. He built himself a bridge to the next day, using today’s energy and momentum to fuel tomorrow’s writing.”
Tiago Forte
“One of the most common narratives on the internet is that you have to ‘go all in’ and ‘have no backup plan’ in order to be successful. People will cite the success of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs to further drive home their point. But this is simply survivorship bias. Instead of looking at Musk, Bezos, and Jobs, ask yourself this question instead: ‘How many people have tried to do what these three did, and failed?’ If 3 out of a million make it, it’s probably not the right choice for you. Instead, think about how you can start small and don’t flush years of your productive time down the drain on one ‘big’ idea.”
Justin Welsh
“The only reason Alan [Watts] talks about mysticism, philosophy, or Eastern traditions is because he enjoys it. He sees himself like a ‘spring bubbling from the side of the mountain’ – if a traveller drinks from the spring and enjoys it, that’s fine. But that’s not the purpose of the spring. The spring just exists.”
Ali Abdaal
“If your plan, your idea or your art doesn’t involve any significant hurdles in moving forward, it’s probably not worth that much. If it were easy, everyone would do it. The tactic is to seek a path where you see and understand the significant hurdles that kept others away. And then dance with them. They’re not a problem, they’re a feature.”
Seth Godin, Blog
“To live is to express, and to express you have to create. Creation is never merely repetition. To live is to express oneself freely in creation.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 6)
“Art has such an impact on people that many strange things can happen in their souls: mysteries become clearer; opaque things become evident; complicated things become simple; what is probable becomes necessary. A real artist always simplifies.”
Henri Amiel, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 196)
“[Bruce Lee’s] answer to problems was to turn a stumbling block into a stepping stone. For instance, when he was confined to bed rest for six months because of a back injury, he used that opportunity to compile his training methods and his philosophical thoughts into several volumes.”
Linda Lee Cadwell, via Striking Thoughts (Page xvii)
“Make 3 Types of Content: Your audience is filled with people in different stages of familiarity with your brand and products. To speak to your cold, warm, and hot audience create content specifically for them. Cold audience: Showcase your expertise and help them solve problems. Warm audience: Explain what you do, who you serve, and how you’re different. Hot audience: Share proof that you’re awesome and give them a reason to buy now.”
Katelyn Bourgoin, Why We Buy (Email)
“Criticizing is easy and fast. Creating is difficult and slow. The two hours you spent on a book or movie usually took two years to produce. Anyone can tear down someone else’s work. The true test of insight is whether you can help them improve it or build something of your own.”
Adam Grant, Twitter
“The greatest impediment to creativity is your impatience, the almost inevitable desire to hurry up the process, express something, and make a splash.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 93)
“We all possess an inborn creative force that wants to become active. This is the gift of our Original Mind, which reveals such potential. The human mind is naturally creative, constantly looking to make associations and connections between things and ideas. It wants to explore, to discover new aspects of the world, and to invent. To express this creative force is our greatest desire, and the stifling of it the source of our misery.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 90)
“Make the world question whether or not there isn’t one of you but ten of you. Create. Create. Create. Create some more. If you’re young, when you’re young, sacrifice everything. Sacrifice love if you have to (because if it’s love it won’t get away). Sacrifice sleep. Sacrifice peace of mind. Sacrifice sorry looks from family members at the dinner table. Sacrifice your pride. Make ends meet through whatever means possible by day and once the light turns to darkness, follow your muse like a hound on the scent of some bloody, dying thing.”
Cole Schafer
“To an artist, rejection, at first, feels like death. That’s how personal the work is. And that’s why we’re afraid to do the work. Because then we have to show it. And then they might reject it. But rejection is only a death if you let it stop you from doing the work the next day.”
Brian Koppelman, Twitter
“The truth is that creative activity is one that involves the entire self—our emotions, our levels of energy, our characters, and our minds. To make a discovery, to invent something that connects with the public, to fashion a work of art that is meaningful, inevitably requires time and effort. This often entails years of experimentation, various setbacks and failures, and the need to maintain a high level of focus. You must have patience and faith that what you are doing will yield something important.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 29)