The creative process is both beautiful and frustrating for everyone. From writers to designers, every creative person will experience inspiration blocks from time to time. Many things can halt our creative juices, from our energy to our environment. However, if you’re feeling drained right now, fear not, as inspiration is right around the corner.
When you’re feeling stuck and stagnated, the best thing to do is get out of your head and into nature. You’re more likely to find that winning idea sitting amongst trees than between four walls. So take a walk in the woods or along the beach to clear your scattered mind.
1. “The artistry and the creativity in a story are better than any drugs.” – Wentworth Miller
2. “The chief enemy of creativity is good sense” – Pablo Picasso
3. “Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go – purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything… whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.” – Tina Turner
4. “I found out that total creativity involves a certain intellectual rebellion – not to become a criminal, but somehow. to be totally creating, you have to do things that are a little bit forbidden. You have to feel free, and we know freedom is a hard thing to get.” – Philippe Petit
5. “Can anybody be given a great degree of creativity? No. They can be given the equipment to develop it-if they have it in them in the first place.” – George Shearing
6. “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” – Albert Einstein
7. “Create. Not for the money. Not for the fame. Not for the recognition. But for the pure joy of creating something and sharing it” – Ernest Barbaric
8. “It’s no good being too easily swayed by people’s opinions. You have to believe in yourself.” – Donatella Versace
9. “Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” – Pablo Picasso
10. “Humor has bailed me out of more tight situations than I can think of. If you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows. With luck, success comes, too.” – Jimmy Buffett
11. “Create with the heart; build with the mind.” – Criss Jami
12. “Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye.” – Dorothy Parker
13. “Creativity itself doesn’t care at all about results – the only thing it craves is the process.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
14. “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way” – Terry Tempest Williams
15. “Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.” – Oprah Winfrey
16. “Creativity is what helps me escape a lot of my inner demons.” – Demi Lovato
17. “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” – Ray Bradbury
18. “Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to.” – Greg Anderson
19. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” – Napoleon Hill
20. “The creative adult is the child who survived.” – Ursula Le Guin
21. “The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.” – Pablo Picasso
22. “You use a glass mirror to see your face. You use works of art to see your soul.” – George Bernard Shaw
23. “To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it” – Osho
24. “Begin by learning to draw and paint like the old masters. After that, you can do as you like; everyone will respect you.” – Salvador Dali
25. “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” – Charles Mingus
26. “Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.” – Donatella Versace
27. “There are a million ways to create. It’s not always typing words, painting pictures, or acting in a play. And you don’t get to decide which is correct” – Brandt Legg
28. “Deadlines and things make you creative.” – Jack White
29. “Creativity is a portal to new angles, new vantage points, new worlds” – Laura Jaworski
30. “Creativity is breaking out of established patterns to look at things in a different way.” – Edward de Bono
31. “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun” – Mary Lou Cook
32. “Energy is the key to creativity. Energy is the key to life.” – William Shatner
33. “Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea” – Edward de Bono
34. “One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.” – Paulo Coelho
35. “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.” – John F. Kennedy
36. “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” – Mary Lou Cook
37. “It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the Navy.” – Steve Jobs
38. “There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” – Edward De Bono
39. “The creativity strength is like a spinning wheel, you need to figure out how to boost it up” – Pearl Zhu
40. “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” – Henry Ford
41. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou
42. “Creativity requires input, and that’s what research is. You’re gathering material with which to build.” – Gene Luen Yang
43. “There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” – Brene Brown
44. “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath
45. “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” – Albert Einstein
46. “Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.” – Dee Hock
47. “Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.” – Pablo Picasso
48. “Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty.” – Bryant H. McGill
49. “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.” – Mary Shelley
50. “Creativity is… seeing something that doesn’t exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with God.” – Michele Shea
Surrounding yourself with the right people can also do wonders for your creativity. Consider joining a support group for creative workers so that you always have someone to bounce ideas around with.
Along with getting fresh air and sharing ideas with others, reading creativity quotes will help to guide and inspire you. We’ve rounded up the best quotes about creative thinking from the most innovative minds throughout history. Reading these is the first step to reconnecting to your artistic genius.
After reading these creativity quotes, you may find that you’re already feeling a little brighter and lighter. So make sure to bookmark this page so that you always have instant access to these words of inspiration.
The most important thing to remember about the creative process is that ebbs and flows will always be. So embrace the moments when ideas are flowing easily and be kind to yourself when you feel stuck.
