Quotes about Creativity

Kathleen Norris, on the publication of her 78th book. 'All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don't get plumber's block, and doctors don't get doctor's block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?

the imagination works not so much through inspiration as through perseverance. One must slog through the false starts, spot the wrong words and hold out for the right ones, and above all, be vigilant about staying on the path of revision, no matter how uncomfortable or even painful the journey might become.

A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.

I never exactly made a book. It's rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say.

Reason is the natural order of truth but imagination is the organ of meaning.

You can make anything by writing.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.

Creative powers can just as easily turn out to be destructive. It rests solely with the moral personality whether they apply themselves to good things or to bad. And if this is lacking, no teacher can supply it or take its place

You see things as they are and ask, 'Why' I dream things as they never were and ask, 'Why not'

After a few months without writing, months I've lived turned outward... I fear going deaf, not being able to hear the silence.

January 8 has been a lucky day for me. I have started all my books on that day, and all of them have been well received by the readers. I write eight to ten hours a day until I have a first draft, then I can relax a little. I am very disciplined. I write in silence and solitude. I light a candle to call inspiration and the muses, and I surround myself with pictures of the people I love, dead and alive.