“In my view the plangent artificiality of a lot of creative work results from the fact that the people who write novels, direct films and put on plays tend to read too many novels, watch too many films and go to too many plays.” PeopleWritingPlayFactsFilmResultsViewsWatchesNovelCreativeDirectCreative WorkArtificiality Author:Will Self
“The book is finished by the reader. A good novel should invite the reader in and let the reader participate in the creative experience and bring their own life experiences to it, interpret with their own individual life experiences. Every reader gets something different from a book and every reader, in a sense, completes it in a different way.” WayShouldBookDifferentIndividualNovelCreativeReaderFinishedDifferent WaysInvitesLife ExperienceIndividual Life Author:Alan Lightman
“Oh, my God. What if you wake up some day, and you're 65 or 75, and you never got your novel or memoir written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools or oceans because your thighs were jiggly or you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It's going to break your heart. Don't let this happen.” PeopleIfsHeartBigsHappensKidsImaginationSpaceBreakNovelCreativeNiceWrittenOceanComfortableWake UpWarmMemoirRadicalStaringWhat IfSwimmingPoolPerfectionismThighsBreak Your HeartJuicyCreative LifeSillinessPleasing PeopleStaring Into Space Author:Anne Lamott
“A lot of novelists start late-Conrad, Pirandello, even Mark Twain. When you're young, chess is all right, and music and poetry. But novel-writing is something else. It has to be learned, but it can't be taught. This bunkum and stinkum of college creative writing courses! The academics don't know that the only thing you can do for someone who wants to write is to buy him a typewriter.” KnowsWantWritingYoungCoursesCan DoNovelCreativeTaughtCollegeLateMarkChessNovelistsCreative WritingTypewritersNovel Writing Author:James M. Cain
“One of the major challenges facing creative individuals is that of building upon the continuity of human knowledge while achieving novel insights. ... On the one hand, to intensify an inquiry and develop a sense of commitment to a creative life, the learner needs models, teachers, and collaborators. On the other hand, the individual, while building upon the past, needs to transform it, and thus broaden his or her choices.” NeedsHumansHandsPastChoicesIndividualChallengesCreativityNovelCreativeTeacherAchieveBuildingMajorsModelsCommitmentInnovationInsightInquiryContinuityLearnersCollaboratorsHuman KnowledgeCreative Life Author:Vera John-Steiner
“As a journalist, I would talk to writers, directors, creative people, and discover that for an awful lot of them, the moment they became successful, that was all they were allowed to do. So you end up talking to the bestselling science-fiction author who wrote a historical-fiction novel that everybody loved, but no one would publish.” PeopleEndsMomentsFictionTalkingNovelCreativeSuccessfulDirectorsScience FictionHistoricalAwfulJournalistHistorical FictionPublishCreative PeopleFiction Novels Author:Neil Gaiman
“I write whenever it suits me. During a creative period I write every day; a novel should not be interrupted. When I cease to be carried along, when I no longer feel as though I were taking down dictation, I stop.” FeelsShouldWritingNovelCreativePeriodsCeaseSuitsInterruptedDictation Author:Francois Mauriac
“The degree of talent, the size of the gift, is immaterial. All artists must listen, but not all hear great symphonies, see wide canvasses, conceive complex, character-filled novels. No matter, the creative act is the same, and it is an act of faith.” MatterCharacterArtistNovelCreativeTalentDegreesFilledComplexesSizeWideSymphonyComplex Characters Author:Madeleine L'Engle
“People didn't know certain things about me, which... I was out of creative writing class in school, Syracuse University; had a B.A. in English and wanted to write the great American novel but I also loved rock and roll. I was in bar bands all through college, playing fraternities and have to know all the songs in the top 10. That kind of thing.” PeopleKnowsWritingKindWantedSchoolCertainSongClassNovelCreativeRocksCollegeBandUniversityBarsRock And RollCreative WritingGreat AmericanFraternityTop 10SyracuseClasses In School Author:Lou Reed
“The inspiration for my novels comes from the depths of a creative well, based on asking myself questions over and over. I try to write something different each time I sit down to write; I try to surprise the readers.” WritingTryingWellsDifferentInspirationNovelCreativeReaderAskingSurpriseDepth Author:Nicholas Sparks
“One of the unfortunate things about creative writing courses is that they make people impatient. People feel that they have prepared themselves and that they must now do it. In fact there are positive incentives for doing so - universities are offering degrees for writing novels.” PeopleFeelsWritingFactsCoursesNovelCreativeDegreesPreparedUniversityOfferingUnfortunateCreative WritingIncentivesImpatientUnfortunate Things Author:Robert Dessaix
“Creating the characters is the most creative part of the novel except for the language itself. There I am, sitting in front of my computer in right-brain mode, typing the things that come to mind - which become the seeds of plot. It's scary, though, because I always wonder: Is it going to be there this time?” MindCharacterLanguageBrainWonderNovelCreativeFrontsComputerCreatingSittingScarySeedsPlotTyping Author:Elizabeth George
“Computer and video games represent one of the most important new media developments of this generation. Unlike many other forms of entertainment they offer players the opportunity to explore, be creative, learn through interaction and express themselves to others. It is vitally important that we protect and nurture this new art form so that it can reach its full potential. Like most new forms of artistic expression that have come before (music, novels, movies), the primary critics of video games are the people that do not play them.” PeopleArtImportantPlayFormOpportunityGamesNovelCreativePlayerGenerationsMediaExpressionDevelopmentOffersProtectComputerCriticsEntertainmentVideoArtisticPrimariesInteractionNurtureBe CreativeNurturingThis GenerationFull PotentialArtistic ExpressionNew Media Author:Will Wright
“I write my novels longhand. I love the feeling of writing; I love to see pen on paper. It feels more creative than typing, and it's a more visual process for me - I can picture the entire scene in my head and am merely writing what I see.” FeelsWritingI CanFeelingsProcessNovelCreativeScenePaperVisualsPensTyping Author:Cecelia Ahern
“Read non-fiction. History, biology, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology. Get a bodyguard and do fieldwork. Find your inner fish. Don't publish too soon. Not before you have read Thomas Mann in any case. Learn by copying, sentence by sentence some of the masters. Copy Coetzee's or Sebald's sentences and see what happens to your story. Consider creative non-fiction if you want to stay in South Africa. It might be the way to go. Never neglect back and hamstring exercises, otherwise you won't be able to write your novel. One needs one's buttocks to think.” IfsThinkingWayWantNeedsWritingStoriesMightHappensAbleFictionCasesNovelCreativeMastersExerciseSouthFishesSentencesBiologyNeglectCopiesSouth AfricaPublishNon FictionCopyingBodyguardPaleontologyButtocksFieldworkHamstringsCoetzee Author:Marlene van Niekerk
“The action of the child inventing a new game with his playmates; Einstein formulating a theory of relativity; the housewife devising a new sauce for the meat, a young author writing his first novel; all of these are in terms of definition, Creative, and there is no attempt to set them in some order of more or less Creative.” WritingFirstsChildrenActionYoungOrderGamesTermNovelCreativeTheoryDefinitionsMeatInventingRelativitySauceHousewifeTheories Of RelativityDevising Book:On becoming a person: a therapist's view of psychotherapy Source: On becoming a person: a therapist's view of psychotherapy
“Elena Ferrante is the author of several novels. There is nothing mysterious about her, given how she manifests herself - perhaps even too much - in her own writing, the place where her creative life transpires in absolute fullness.” WritingGivenNovelCreativeToo MuchAbsolutesMysteriousFullnessCreative Life Book:Frantumaglia: A Writer's Journey Source: Frantumaglia: A Writer's Journey
“"Freedom, individualism, authenticity and being yourself so long as you don't hurt another's physical person or property: The creative process is the emergence in action of a novel relational product, growing out of the uniqueness of the individual."” PersonsLongArtActionIndividualProcessHurtNovelCreativeGrowingProductsPropertyAuthenticityBeing YourselfIndividualismCreative ProcessUniquenessEmergence Author:Carl Rogers