Here are eleven quotes by great minds on the topic of creativity. These words encourage me and I hope they do the same for you. Below you will find the list, but over the next few months I will take each one of these quotes and write a little reflection on life as an artist inspired by the quote. I’m looking forward to it already! For now, just soak up the words:

“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced” – Vincent Van Gogh

“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it” – Salvador Dali

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people” – Leo Burnett

 

“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club” – Jack London

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will” – George Bernard Shaw

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try” – Dr. Seuss

“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity” – Charles Mingus

“Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas” – Donatella Versace

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things” – Ray Bradbury

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while” – Steve Jobs

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not’?” – George Bernard Shaw