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[Foxeye]

Just read something that I want to share.  I'm guilty of giving up on drawing something before I even try, because I assume I will fail, so this was a necessary kick in the butt to me.

"...choose what you want to bring into manifestation and begin to create it, even if you think you can't. Creation is one of the primary factors in the maintenance of sanity. Humor is another. So if you produce laughable results, you get two benefits for the one effort." 

- from The Faeries Oracle by Brian Froud and Jessica Macbeth

Anyone else have any words of wisdom that have helped them with creativity insecurities or blockages?

[Eregyrn]

 

That quote reminds me of a favorite that I and the friends who were with me in college have cherished for many years:

"If it's right, it will be beautiful. And if it's wrong, it'll be funny."

(The context: spoken by Mabel Lang, professor of Greek at Bryn Mawr in the 80s, speaking to a student whom she had sent to the blackboard to write a translation in ancient Greek. But applicable to so many things!)


My other favorite, I suppose, is from Chuck Jones, who reported it as something a professor of art told him way, way back in the day.  I'm paraphrasing, as I don't have the book here at home with me, but it was along the lines of:

"Everyone has ten thousand bad drawings in him.  So the sooner you get them over with, the better off we'll all be."

(Which, as Jones went on to relate, mostly just meant: draw; draw a lot; draw all the time. It's the only way to get better, even if you look back on your earlier drawings and think they're "bad".  But I think it's also a caution not to get hung up on the idea that you should only draw something if the outcome will be "perfect"; the act of drawing, and then moving on without becoming obsessive about reworking what you've done, is more important.)

[Berit]

Well, about it, this one has helped me in many different situations, I don't know who wrote it, but I really like it...

A man cannot find new oceans if he lacks courage to lose sight of the shore

[Treefox]

I like these. There is one that I read just today, it was quoted from the Dalai Lama, but I am not sure that it is originally from him:

When you lose, don't lose the lesson

That can be applied to creative things, methinks.

[Jeb]

When I was a young man I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. I didn't want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work.
George Bernard Shaw

This one I always want to put in top of my syllabi:
Saying there are obstacles will get you nowhere; do what you can at the time.
Padmasambhava