William Faulkner Quotes

Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.

don’t write out of what I know; I write out of what I wonder. I think most artists create art in order to explore, not to give the answers. Poetry and art are not about answers to me; they are about questions.

I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; and that intense experience and suffering instruct us in ways that less intense emotions can never do.

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.

Genius is patience.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world

Writing isn't necessarily about what one knows but what one wants to know.

I believe intellect is needed in order to develop any creative output and that intellect alone is not enough!

When writing 'Give and Take' and 'Originals,' the predominant emotion for me was curiosity.

I always start out with an idea, even a boring idea, that becomes a question I don't have answers to.

I have never been able to understand anyone on this planet who lacks a need for knowledge. Is it not God's greatest gift to us all, this capacity to think, to wonder, to imagine?

Talent jogs to conclusions to which Genius takes giant leaps.

Discovery is the ability to be puzzled by simple things. Noam Chomsky

I think it's really important to not talk about how you're going to release something until you've finished it. People are like, "What are we going to make? What are we going to do with it?" and it's just like, "I don't know, we're just making music. Then we'll talk." You can't always write something you're happy with; you can't force it.

I think I still keep my sense of wonder, which I call childlike, not childish, childlike. I still have a vivid imagination, and I like to try a lot of new things.

This is our goal as writers, I think; to help others have this sense of--please forgive me--wonder, of seeing things anew, things that can catch us off guard, that break in on our small, bordered worlds.

I like to make people think.

See what no one else sees. See what everyone chooses not to see... out of fear, conformity or laziness. See the whole world anew each day!

A questioning mind is the most cherished resource man has and the rarest.

I think of there being two conditions that creative people go through. I think it's fear and curiosity.

Each time I sit down and write a play I try to dismiss from my mind as much as I possibly can the implications of what I've done before, what I'm going to do, what other people think about my work, the failure or success of the previous play. I'm stuck with a new reality that I've got to create.

Lateral thinking... is the process of using information to bring about creativity and insight restructuring. Lateral thinking can be learned, practised and used. It is possible to acquire skill in it just as it is possible to acquire skill in mathematics.

I wouldn't want to compare myself to David Byrne whom I consider a genius, but what I think what we have in common is that he's also a guy who is very interested in the world and who has a lot of passions beyond singing and playing guitar.