Eric Hoffer Quotes

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation.

I love to create, and to me, the ultimate freedom of expression is a blank canvas or a block of clay to capture whatever emotions your imagination gives it.

Artists live in unknown spaces and give themselves over to following something unknown.

I never know what I'm going to put on the canvas. The canvas paints itself. I'm just the middleman.

Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.

That's what I love more than anything, just creating.

I just like being creative, whatever way I have to do it.

Interesting things happen when the creative impulse is cultivated with curiosity, freedom and intensity.

When creative people do their best work, they're hardly ever in charge, they're just sort of rolling along with their eyes shut yelling wheee.

I see the canvas and I begin... It's a necessary evil to get into the work, and it's pretty marvelous to be able to get out of it.

It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't matter if you have training or a background in it. Just create something, and lend a piece of yourself to that art.

Serious art is born from serious play.

All real works of art look as though they were done in joy.

Precepts, conventions - above all traditions - have no value in art.

The great artist is one whom constraint exalts, for whom the obstacle is a springboard.

... everyone's free to embark on either a great clipper or a little fishing boat. An artist is an explorer who oughtn't to shrink from anything: it doesn't matter whether he goes to the left or the right -- his goal sanctifies all.

Art chooses its constraints.

To blossom forth, a work of art must ignore or rather forget all the rules.

I don't understand how people live without creating.

Don't think about making art.

Half of art is accident, but there is no accident without free experiment.

The moment we live in is a great time to make art. We have different technologies to play with, and we're left with the opportunity to focus on our work.

Art is very mysterious. I wonder if you can really do any damage to art. I think that when we're writing, something comes through or should come through, in spite of our theories. So theories are not really important.

Failures in art usually lead to something else interesting.