Helmut Jahn Quotes

So much of artistic creation is just exclusion. It's not creating things; it's just excluding things that really aren't going to be helpful.

There is but one art, to omit! Oh, if I knew how to omit I would ask no other knowledge. A man who knows how to omit would make an Iliad of a daily paper.

I've noticed that sometimes when you keep things a little smaller, it's easier to focus on the creative aspects of what you're doing.

Art is about eliminating almost everything in order to focus on the thing that you need to talk about.

What's really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer.

That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

I cut up loads. I always want everything shorter, shorter, shorter.

People who don’t know how to summarize have no dignity. Neither do people who needlessly drag on their messy lives. They who don’t know the beauty of simplification, of pruning away the unnecessary, die without ever comprehending the true meaning of life.

Less is more.

Take the complications, rules, shoulds, musts, have tos, and so on out of your life. By uncomplicating your life and removing the trivial pursuits that occupy so much of it, you open a channel for the genius within you to emerge.

I am completely attracted to the idea of simplicity, or at least removing things that seem unnecessary when trying to get an idea out there.

Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.

I really feel that we need to scale back and get to what is important on so many levels.

Most people in business and within their personal lives move towards complexity. More To Dos. More projects. More products. More meetings. More possessions. More goals. The best - I suggest to you - move in the opposite direction.

A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with-that's poverty-but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you're clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it's clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar. (148)

Simplicity requires ruthlessness.

My goal is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential is shown to best possible advantage.

Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

All art does but consist in the removal of surplusage.

It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.

I've always found it necessity to strip away everything but the most fundamental ways to work - the rest is style.

My characters have undergone the same process of simplification as the colors. Now that they have been simplified, they appear more human and alive than if they had been represented in all their details.

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. It is a process; it's not random.

Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.