“The magic in any art is not only in its technique but in its authenticity. Truth in its rawest form is what resonates most powerfully.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 39)
Creation Quotes
“Some people hesitate to share an idea because they’re worried it will be stolen. In general, these people are afraid of success, not failure. An idea unspoken is a safe one, which not only can’t be stolen, but it can’t be tested, criticized, improved or used in the real world.”
Seth Godin, Blog
Feeling Down About Your Ideas? Read This.
Excerpt: Inspired by a post on Reddit, read this to break free from the impossibly exhaustive thinking of originality and learn how to start remixing.
Read More »Feeling Down About Your Ideas? Read This.
An Argument For Art — And Why You Should Be Creating With Every Opportunity You Get
Excerpt: Think about everything that has to happen before you even get to consider creating something. It’s a miracle that art is a thought for you…
Read More »An Argument For Art — And Why You Should Be Creating With Every Opportunity You Get
Kevin Kelly Quote on Creating and How To Take Creations from Being “Good” to “Great”
“To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just re-do it, re-do it, re-do it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.”
Kevin Kelly, Blog
Beyond the Quote (210/365)
The rough draft is never as good as the final copy. The first rendition is never as smooth as the final production. The initial prototype never functions as well as the end-stage product. In each of these cases, what’s the difference between the former and the latter? The re-doing. Re-doing doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch with each of your creations either—although it could be that. Rather, it’s more of an emphasis on constant and never-ending refinement.
Read More »Kevin Kelly Quote on Creating and How To Take Creations from Being “Good” to “Great”“Separate the processes of creation from improving. You can’t write and edit, or sculpt and polish, or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select. While you sketch, don’t inspect. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect. At the start, the creator mind must be unleashed from judgement.”
Kevin Kelly, Blog
Witt Lowry Quote from Debt on How Things That Are Man-Made Don’t Make The Man
“I should have known that somethin’ man-made couldn’t make me /
I say I’m makin’ music, or is music what creates me?”
Witt Lowry, Debt, Nevers Road
Beyond the Quote (208/365)
Nothing man-made makes the man. It’s what the man makes that makes the man. What somebody else made is a reflection of them. You obtaining what they made doesn’t make you into any kind of different person at all. It might reveal the type of person you are but it doesn’t change who you are. To understand this is to understand the power in making and creating. To forget this is to forget and never realize who you are to yourself or the world.
Read More »Witt Lowry Quote from Debt on How Things That Are Man-Made Don’t Make The ManSteven Pressfield Quote on Creative Work and How To Overcome The Resistance To Express It
“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action. Do it or don’t do it. It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet. You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God. Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
Beyond the Quote (189/365)
Don’t think that just because I write every day that it’s easy for me. Writing is always hard. Just like sprinting is always hard. Neither ever gets easier—you just get better. Just today, for example, I sat down to write and noticed—really felt—the potency of the resistance that I had to overcome in order to begin. Here’s what the start to my writing looked like:
Read More »Steven Pressfield Quote on Creative Work and How To Overcome The Resistance To Express It“Your ultimate leverage is your craft. Stop taking meetings, stop networking, stop trying to cut corners, and get better at what you do. As you get better, your craft will be your leverage, and opportunities will find you. Devote more time to your craft and become irreplaceable.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 241)
Osho Quote on Meaning and How It Arises
“When a poet writes a poem, meaning arises – because the poet is not alone; he has created something. When a dancer dances, meaning arises. When a mother gives birth to a child, meaning arises. Left alone, cut off from everything else, isolated like an island, you are meaningless. Joined together you are meaningful. The bigger the whole, the bigger is the meaning.”
Osho, The Book of Understanding
Beyond the Quote (85/365)
Isolated might feel like the physical reality, but it doesn’t have to be the emotional state. Isolated might make the feeling of meaninglessness arise, but meaning extends beyond just physical connection. Think about the power of creation. Creation is the act of giving birth to something that otherwise would not have never existed. Before creation there is just you. And for as long as you continue to remain in isolation physically, mentally, and emotionally—no meaning will arise. How could it?
Read More »Osho Quote on Meaning and How It ArisesMatt Damon Quote on Taking Action Rather Than Sitting Around Thinking You’re “Too Cool”
“It was like, ‘Why are we sitting here? Let’s make our own movie.’ And if people come to see it, they come; and if they don’t, they don’t. Either way it beats sitting here going crazy. When you have so much energy and so much passion and no outlet for it and nobody cares, it’s just the worst feeling… This whole ‘I’m too cool to care’ thing… is so weak and stupid and played out, and it just brings everybody down. You shouldn’t be too cool to care, for Christ’s sake. You should be full of vim and vigor, and trying to do everything you can to make a change.”
Matt Damon
Beyond the Quote (48/365)
Regardless of what gets you there, when the end conclusion is not caring, then all of the life that comes from caring dissolves. Caring is exactly what drives us to listen, to pay attention, to take actions, to go above and beyond, and to think and reflect—essentially, when we don’t care, we’re choosing not to interact with the world (or at least that aspect of it).
Read More »Matt Damon Quote on Taking Action Rather Than Sitting Around Thinking You’re “Too Cool”Anne Lamott Quote on Writing Really Poorly Before You Ever Write Anything Good
“People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts… For me and most other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. If fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.”
Anne Lamott
Beyond the Quote (43/365)
For all of you who are intimidated by the dreaded blank page and have insecurities and self-doubts about writing (or creating in general), let me reassure you: we ALL start out with really, really shitty first drafts. Not even the best writers in the world (the ones who you envision typing out those perfect, fully formed passages as fast as a court reporters can type) write their final copy on their first try. It just doesn’t happen. So, drop the expectation that you’ll be able to do that yourself (sorry not sorry)!
Read More »Anne Lamott Quote on Writing Really Poorly Before You Ever Write Anything GoodBernard Malamud Quote on Writing—There’s No Secret Practice
“There’s no one way [to write] — there’s too much drivel about this subject. You’re who you are, not Fitzgerald or Thomas Wolfe. You write by sitting down and writing. There’s no particular time or place — you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he’s disciplined, doesn’t matter. If he or she is not disciplined, no sympathetic magic will help. The trick is to make time — not steal it — and produce the fiction. If the stories come, you get them written, you’re on the right track. Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack is you.”
Bernard Malamud, via Daily Rituals
Beyond the Quote (16/365)
If Dwayne Johnson AND Jocko Willink both wake up at 4am to get their workouts done, given how wildly busy and in shape they both are, then that must be the best time to wake up and workout, right? To answer that from personal experience, no. I have tried to build that idea into my routine several times and have failed awfully each and every time. I experienced so much misery and resistance that I felt like even if I mustered together ALL of my willpower from a day, it wouldn’t be enough to get me through one 4am workout—let alone a lifetime of them. So, what gave?
Read More »Bernard Malamud Quote on Writing—There’s No Secret Practice
“Whatever it is for you, our lives were meant to be spent making our contribution to the world, not merely consuming the world that others create.” ~ James Clear, Blog
“Creativity is by its nature an act of boldness and rebellion. You are not accepting the status quo or conventional wisdom. You are playing with the very rules you have learned, experimenting and testing the boundaries. The world is dying for bolder ideas, for people who are not afraid to speculate and investigate. Creeping conservatism will narrow your searches, tether you to comfortable ideas, and create a downward spiral—as the creative spark leaves you, you will find yourself clutching even more forcefully to dead ideas, past successes, and the need to maintain your status. Make creativity rather than comfort your goal and you will ensure far more success for the future.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery