New Ways to Tap into Our Creativity—and Compelling Reasons Why
By Rick Rubin February 11, 2023
Those who do not engage in the traditional arts might be wary of calling themselves artists. They might perceive creativity as something extraordinary or beyond their capabilities. A calling for the special few who are born with these gifts.
Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us. Creativity doesn’t exclusively relate to making art. We all engage in this act on a daily basis. To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before. It could be a conversation, the solution to a problem, a note to a friend, the rearrangement of furniture in a room, a new route home to avoid a traffic jam.
What you make doesn’t have to be witnessed, recorded, sold, or encased in glass for it to be a work of art. Through the ordinary state of being, we’re already creators in the most profound way, creating our experience of reality and composing the world we perceive.
On living as an artist …
To live as an artist is a way of being in the world. A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention. Refining our sensitivity to tune in to the more subtle notes. Looking for what draws us in and what pushes us away. Noticing what feeling tones arise and where they lead.
Attuned choice by attuned choice, your entire life is a form of self-expression. You exist as a creative being in a creative universe. A singular work of art.
On looking for clues …
Material for our work surrounds us at every turn. It’s woven into conversation, nature, chance encounters, and existing works of art.
When looking for a solution to a creative problem, pay close attention to what’s happening around you. Look for clues pointing to new methods or ways to further develop current ideas.
A writer may be in a coffee shop, working on a scene and unsure what a character is going to say next. A phrase might be overheard in the chatter from another table that provides a direct answer, or at least a glimpse of a possible direction. We receive these types of messages all the time, if we remain open to them. We might read a book and find a quote leaping off the page, or watch a movie and notice a line that moves us to pause and rewind. Sometimes it’s the exact answer we’ve been looking for. Or it could be an echo of an idea that keeps repeating in other places—begging for more attention or affirming the path we’re on.
These transmissions are subtle: they are ever-present, but they’re easy to miss. If we aren’t looking for clues, they’ll pass by without us ever knowing. Notice connections and consider where they lead. An integral part of the artist’s work is deciphering these signals. The more open you are, the more clues you will find and the less effort you’ll need to exert. You may be able to think less and begin to rely on answers arising within you.
On looking inward …
It’s common to believe that life is a series of external experiences. And that we must live an outwardly extraordinary life in order to have something to share. The experience of our inner world is often completely overlooked.
If we focus on what’s going on inside ourselves—sensations, emotions, the patterns of our thoughts—a wealth of material can be found. Our inner world is every bit as interesting, beautiful, and surprising as nature itself. It is, after all, born of nature.
When we go inside, we are processing what’s going on outside. We’re no longer separate. We’re connected. We are one.
Ultimately, it doesn’t make a difference whether your content originates on the inside or the outside. If a beautiful thought or phrase comes to mind, or if you see a beautiful sunset, one’s not better than the other. Both are equally beautiful in different ways. It’s helpful to consider there are always more options available to us than we might realize.
On self-doubt …
Self-doubt lives in all of us. And while we may wish it gone, it is there to serve us.
Flaws are human, and the attraction of art is the humanity held in it. If we were machinelike, the art wouldn’t resonate. It would be soulless. With life comes pain, insecurity, and fear.
We’re all different and we’re all imperfect, and the imperfections are what makes each of us and our work interesting. We create pieces reflective of who we are, and if insecurity is part of who we are, then our work will have a greater degree of truth in it as a result.
The making of art is not a competitive act. Our work is representative of the self. You would be amiss to say, “I’m not up to the challenge.” Yes, you may need to deepen your craft to fully realize your vision. If you’re not up to it, no one else can do it. Only you can. You’re the only one with your voice.
On having an abundant mindset…
A river of material flows through us. When we share our works and our ideas, they are replenished. If we block the flow by holding them all inside, the river cannot run and new ideas are slow to appear.
In the abundant mindset, the river never runs dry. Ideas are always coming through. And an artist is free to release them with the faith that more will arrive.
The recognition of abundance fills us with hope that our brightest ideas still await us and our greatest work is yet to come. We‘re able to live in an energized state of creative momentum, free to make things, let them go, make the next thing, and let it go. With each chapter we make, we gain experience, improve at our craft, and inch closer to who we are.
Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so as to live the life that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell, author
We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.
Cardinal Newman
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese opposition leader and Noble laureate
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Man does not simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment. Viktor Frankl
All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.
Havelock Ellis
When you want to believe in something, you also have to believe in everything that’s necessary for believing in it.
Ugo Betti
Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.
Goethe, Faust
The worst loneliness is not to comfortable with yourself.
Mark Twain
I could be whatever I wanted to be if I trusted that music, that song, that vibration of God that was inside me.
Shirley Maclaine
If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
A man who doesn’t trust himself can never really trust anyone else.
Cardinal De Retez
Trust one who has gone through it.
Virgil, The Aeneid
You can be pleased with nothing when you are not pleased with yourself.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.
Tommy Lasorda
The way I see it, if you want to see the rainbows, you gotta put up with the rain.
Dolly Parton
I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often as a sign of their great respect, they don’t invite me.
Dave Barry (1947-)
The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don’t have it.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Of course I’m inconsistent! Only logicians and cretins are consistent.
Tom Robbins
To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something.
Walker Percy
We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Ghandi
There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness.
Pearl S. Buck
“Every close friendship offers the same fundamental thrill: someone has singled you out and chosen you, someone who had no obligation to do so.”
Jenny Offill and Elissa Schappell
Without freedom from the past, there is no freedom at all, because the mind is never new, fresh, innocent,
Krishnamurti
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.
Herbert Bayard Swope journalist
First say to yourself what you would be” and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus, greek philosopher
God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.
Mother Theresa
You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough
Joe E. Lewis, comedian
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
Henri Frederic Amiel
I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.
James M. Barrie (1860-1937)
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
Walt Disney (1901-1966)
We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.
Vince Lombardi
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
confucius ( 551 BC – 479 BC )
All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), in J. B. Birks “Rutherford at Manchester” (1962)
Something unknown is doing we don’t know what.
Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944), comment on the Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics, 1927
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Baby T’s Ideas
•
Praise youth and it will prosper.
Irish Proverb
No one likes change but babies in diapers.
Barbara Johnson
Babies are such a nice way to start people.
Don Herold
A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.
Carl Sandberg
When I was born I was so surprised I didn’t talk for a year and a half.
Gracie Allen
Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.
Tom Robbins
A child is a curly dimpled lunatic.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The soul is healed by being with children.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
• • • • •
Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, a woman is giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped.
Sam Levinson
You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.
Michael Pritchard
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Since people are going to be living longer and getting older, they’ll just have to learn to be babies longer.
Andy Warhol
Children are poor man’s riches.
English quote
Every child is born a genius.
Richard Buckminister Fuller
The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.
Elain Heffner
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)
Sooner or later we all quote our Mothers.
Bern Williams
Families with babies and families without babies are so sorry for each other.
Ed Howe
The most important thing she’d learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.
Jill Churchill
Genius is immediate, but talent takes time.
Janet Flanner
Talent does what it can; genius does what it must.
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873)
Children have more need of models than of critics.
Carolyn Coats
A wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age.
Meat Loaf
My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
You can only be young once. But you can always be immature.
Dave Barry (1947-)
The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.
Frank A. Clark
The best way to make children good is to make them happy.
Oscar Wilde
Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn’t block traffic.
Dan Rather (1931-)
To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.
Joseph Chilton Pearce
The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
I believe in God, only I spell it nature.
Frank Llyod Wright (1869-1959)
The way I see it, if you want to see the rainbows, you gotta put up with the rain.
Dolly Parton
All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.
Havelock Ellis
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Herm Albright (1876-1944)
Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life.
Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928)
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.
Vince Lombardi
Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
confucius ( 551 BC – 479 BC )
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible Walt Disney
(1901-1966)
ABILITY
Dressing up is inevitably a substitute for good ideas. It is no coincedence that technically inept business types are known as “suits”.
Paul Graham
ACTIONS
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
confucius ( 551 BC – 479 BC )
Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
ADVICE
People who ask for our advice almost never take it. Yet we should never refuse to gibe it, upon request, for it often helps us to see our own way more clearly.
Brendan Francis
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.
Erica Jong
Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon a wall rather than using it.
Gordon R. Dickson
I have found the best way to give advice to yout children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)
AGE
Wisdom dosen’t automatically come with old age. Nothing does – except wrinkles. It’s true, some wines will improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place
Abigail Van Buren (1918-)
You can only percieve real beauty in a person as they get older.
Anouk Amiee, O Magazine, October 2003
Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
Benard M Baruch (1870-1965)
You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop luaghing.
Michael Pritchard
Middle age is when you’ve met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else.
Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
I am not youg enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
To keep the heart unwrikled, to be hopeful, kindly cheerful, reverent – that is to triumph over old age.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich, O Magazine
AGREEMENT
If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973)
When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.
William Wrigley Jr. (1861-1932)
AMERICA
America’s greatest strength, and it’s greatest weakness, is our belief in second chances, our belief that we can always start over, thant things can be made better.
Anthony Walton
America’s one of the finest countries anyone ever stole.
Bobcat Goldthwaite
AMERICANS
Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn’t block traffic.
Dan Rather (1931-)
ANGER
Anger makes you smaller, while forgivness forces you to grow beyond what you were.
Cherie Carter Scott
If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit, give it nothing which may tend to it’s increase.
Epictetus (55 AD-135 AD)
Anger at lies lasts forever. Anger at truth can’t last.
Greg Evans, Luann (comic) September 27, 2003
Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Frogiveness gives you back the laughter and lightness in your life.
Joan Ludden
Speak when you are angry– and you will make the best speech you’ll ever regret.
Laurence J. Peter (1919-1988)
ARGUMENT
I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties Often as a sign of their great respect, they don’t invite me.
Dave Barry (1947-)
The thing I hate about an argument is it always interrupts a discussion.
G. K. Chesterson (1874-1936)
It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.
Pierre Beaumarchais (1732-1799)
ART
(Abstract art is) a product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.
Al Capp (1909-1979)
Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.
Amy Lowell (1874-1929)
So you see, imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.
Brenda Ueland
Art is born out of the observation and investigation of nature.
Cicero (106 BC -43 BC)
Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.
Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)
What I dream of is an art of balance.
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.
Joseph Chilton Pearce
The creation of art is not the fulfillment of a need, but the creation of a need. The world never needed Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony until he created it. Now we could not live without it.
Louis I Kahn
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Scott Adams (1957-)
ATHEISM
The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
I believe in God, only I spell it nature.
Frank Llyod Wright (1869-1959)
ATTITUDE
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Herm Albright (1876-1944)
BEAUTY
The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw.
Havelock Ellis (1859-1939)
BELIEF
Man is what he believes.
Anton Chekov (1860-1904)
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.
Gerry Spence
In the provience of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.
John Lilly
Remember that what you believe will depend very much on what you are.
Noah Porter (1811-1892)
BIRTH
Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
Barry Switzer (1937-)
We are born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to parcipitate in society.
Judith Martin, Miss Manners
BODY
Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack.
Henry Miller (1891-1980)
CREATIVITY
One must also accept that one has ‘uncreative’ moments. The more honestly one can accept that, the quicker these moments will pass.
Etty Hillesum
CHANGE
Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind.
To the fearful it is threatening because it means things may get worse.
To the hopeful it is encouraging because it means things may get better.
To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.
King Whitney Jr.
It’s not that some people have willpower and some don’t. It’s that some people are ready to change, and others are not.
James Gordon M. D.
We did not change as we grew older, we just became more clearly ourselves.
Lynn Hall Where Have All The Tigers Gone?, 1989
Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let’s Love turbulence and use it for change.
Ramasy Clark
CHARM
Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
Henri Frederic Amiel
FUTURE
Live neither in the past or in the future, but let each days work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy you wildest ambition.
Sir William Osler (1849-1919), to his students
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Alan Kay
I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD-180 AD)
The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.
William Gibson (1949-)
PAST
The farther behind I leave the past, the closer I am to forging my own character.
Isabelle Eberhardt
SUPERSTITION
A superstition is a premature explanation that overstays it time.
George Iles
Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.
Edgar allen Poe (1809-1849)
TALENT
Put yourself on view. This brings your talents to light.
Baltasar Gracian
Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
Cicero (106 BC-43 BC)
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Erica Jong
Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.
Henri-Frederi Amiel
TEACH
Experience teaches only the teachable.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others.
Tryon Edwards (1809-19894)
TECHNOLOGY
For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.
Alice Kahn
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand.
Putt’s Law
TEMPTATION
I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.
Mae West (1892-1980)
Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.
Robert Orbin
It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be with out temptations.
Walter bagehot (1826-1877)
TIME
The whole life of a man is just a point in time, let us enjoy it.
Plutarch (46- AD-120 AD)
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.
Jim Bishop
We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.
John F. Kennedy (1921-1963)
If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.
Maria Edgeworth, O Magazine
Regret for wasted time is more wasted time.
Mason Cooley, O Magazine
Time does not change us. It unfolds us.
Max Frisch
Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisley.
Rodin (1840-1917)
Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.
Theophrastus (372 BC-287 BC)
Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.
Will Rogers (1879-1935)