Quotes about Creativity

A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely . . . but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at every attitude . . .

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.

For a novelist, being 'too emotional' is often a good thing. The only thing you have to sell is your emotional experiences.

I've got CDs in my car, listening all the time for that next song, because everybody's looking.

I've always been a fan of animation. As a kid, I used to watch a lot of the Saturday-morning cartoons, and I was always a fan of even claymation and that whole medium.

It's easier to make art for a society at a certain point in time with an understanding of what's going on.

If you tell a story that's only allegory, then it doesn't help you at all. If it doesn't bring some emotional charge, then it's just talking about something.

I was nine, and I was shopping in a supermarket with my dad. There was this cereal, and it had a special promotion with a CD inside the box that had a really simple music-making program on it. I got it, and that opened my mind to being able to make music on a computer and seeing all the different layers.

When I leave a recording session, there is usually a lot of paranoia or superstition on my part, like I'm afraid to hear what we've done.

I don't usually think of my writing as a 'challenge' because I enjoy the process so much. I suppose that's what's helped me to avoid 'writer's block' all these years.

I suppose sequels are inevitable for a writer of a certain age.

I thought going in that I had to have this very broad, very palatable sensibility that works for everybody, but then the stuff that I'm the most proud of, and probably even got the most success from, was outwardly an expression of queerness or gayness. That's been a nice surprise.