#creative

The flimsy little protestations that mark the front gate of every novel, the solemn statements that any resemblance to real persons living or dead is entirely coincidental, are fraudulent every time. A writer has no other material to make his people from than the people of his experience ... The only thing the writer can do is to recombine parts, suppress some characterisitics and emphasize others, put two or three people into one fictional character, and pray the real-life prototypes won't sue. ↗

— Wallace Stegner

#creative-process #fiction #realism #truth #writing

In order to create you have to believe in your ability to do so and that often means excluding whole chunks of normal life, and, of course, pumping yourself up as much as possible as a way of keeping on. Sort of cheering for yourself in the great football stadium of life." (Barnes & Noble Review, email dialogue with Cameron Martin, Feb. 09, 2009) ↗

— T.C. Boyle

#creative-process #self-confidence #self-trust #writing #life

Some musicians play blues, others classical jazz or bluegrass. I like to play political roles because I can merge my political interests with my creative interests. ↗

— Jeffrey Wright

#bluegrass #blues #classical #creative #i

To express yourself in a creative way you don't need structure you need an empty mind. ↗

— E'yen A. Gardner

#inspirational-life #spiritual-life #inspirational

Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just plain awful or doesn’t work. Bashers go one sentence at a time, getting it exactly right before they go on to the next one. When they’re done they’re done. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#creativity #writing #writing-advice #writing-process #writing-advice

Whenever I think of something but can't think of what it was I was thinking of, I can't stop thinking until I think I'm thinking of it again. I think I think too much. ↗

— Criss Jami

#challenge #clever #cognition #cognitive #cognitive-psychology

For the most basic assumption that dictated my early attempts to respond to creative music commentary was the mistaken belief that western journalists had some fundamental understanding of black creativity—or even western creativity—but this assumption was seriously in error. ↗

— Anthony Braxton

#music #music-criticism #music

Creative work is often driven by pain. It may be that if you don't have something in the back of your head driving you nuts, you may not do anything. It's not a good arrangement. If I were God, I wouldn't have done it that way. [Interview, The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 20, 2009] ↗

— Cormac McCarthy

#creation #creative-process #driving-forces #hardship #pain

It is the artist who tries to gradually accustom people to the possibilities of a better state of things. ↗

— C.A. Dawson Scott

#change #creative-vision #creativity #human-nature #world-community

About writing:The trick is to make sure you love what you've produced--to Believe..in order to convince. ↗

— Christina Westover

#christina-westover #creative-visualization #inspiration #precipice #writing