George Edward Woodberry Quotes

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.

We have such a great depth of human history in all of the arts, whether it's opera or mathematics or painting or classical music or jazz. There's so many things to study, new books to read, and certainly always ways to transform old ideas and to come up with new ones.

If you're any kind of artist, you've got to ... keep opening yourself to new possibilities.

What makes a good work of art is something that honors certain traditions and breaks with others.

Philosophy becomes poetry, and science imagination, in the enthusiasm of genius.

Will you ever run out of creative ideas and expressions? Ha! The more creative ideas you have, the more you will discover. Creativity is a tree with countless branches that never stop blossoming.

My goal... not to go back to Rembrandt... but to bring the great tradition and whatever is great about it, up to date.

There are two types of genius; one which above all begets and wants to beget, and another which prefers being fertilized and giving birth.

Intelligence is not creative; judgment is not creative. If a sculptor is nothing but skill and mind, his hands will be without genius.

Most creative work is a process of people passing ideas and inspirations from the past into the future and adding their own creativity along the way.

To us, the value of a work lies in its newness: the invention of new forms, or a novel combination of old forms, the discovery of unknown worlds or the exploration of unfamiliar areas in worlds already discovered - revelations, surprises.

It's so important to me that I feel like I'm doing something that's never been done before, whether that's in the show, or I'm writing a song. I can exist in this little box here, but I have to do something new with it.

I'm interested in authentic experience and the essence of that creative place, and where those myths begin and where they become real on any level.

Changes in our aesthetic tastes have no value or meaning in and of themselves; what has value and meaning is the idea of change itself. Or, better stated: not change in and of itself, but change as an agent or inspiration of modern creations.

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.

Genius is the ability to renew one's emotions in daily experience.

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.

I'm experimental by nature... always exploring my creativity.

Painting is, I think, inevitably an archaic activity and one that depends on spiritual values.

In the nineteenth century the more grandiose word inspiration began to replace the word idea in the arts.

As human beings, we are the only organisms that create for the sheer stupid pleasure of doing so. Whether it's laying out a garden, composing a new tune on the piano, writing a bit of poetry, manipulating a digital photo, redecorating a room, or inventing a new chili recipe - we are happiest when we are creating.

The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.

I love any and all situations where you celebrate creativity.

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

I think if you are creative then it's an unstoppable thing. It just keeps coming throughout your entire life.