Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.
You have to believe there’s something at the other side. And you have to have faith in yourself. You have to think that you have the tools to accomplish it.
I think people want very much to simplify their lives enough so that they can control the things that make it possible to sleep at night.
Usually kids who are talented have the brashness to think they can do anything, but they don’t often get the chance to see how close they can come.
Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources.
You may wonder which came first: the skill or the hard work. But that’s a moot point. The Zen master cleans his own studio. So should you.
It’s vital to establish some rituals-automatic but decisive patterns of behavior-at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way.
Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art.
I’m not one who divides music, dance or art into various categories. Either something works, or it doesn’t.
Everything is raw material. Everything is relevant. Everything is usable. Everything feeds into my creativity. But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.
I read for growth, firmly believing that what you are today and what you will be in five years depends on two things: the people you meet and the books you read.
Solitude is an unavoidable part of creativity. Self-reliance is a happy by-product.
Whether it’s a painter finding his way each morning to the easel, or a medical researcher returning daily to the laboratory, the routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightning bolt of inspiration, maybe more.
Creativity is more about taking the facts, fictions, and feelings we store away and finding new ways to connect them.
I’ve always thought my creative life began the moment my mother called me Twyla.
In order to be creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative.
When it all comes together, a creative life has the nourishing power we normally associate with food, love and faith.
Everyone has a talent. It’s simply a question of good discipline, of the good fortune to have an education that meshes with that talent, and a lot of luck.
There is obviously a power and a truth in action that doesn’t lie, which words easily can do.
The disasteris not the money, although the money will be missed. The disaster is the disrespect – this belief that the arts are dispensable, that they’re not critical to a culture’s existence.