Ed Parker Quotes

I think a lot of people study the rules too much and then don't know how to be creative.

Knowledge comes from the past, so it's safe. It is also out of date. It's the opposite of originality... Experience is the opposite of being creative.

We travellers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic.

In my basic courses I have always tried to develop discovery and invention which, in my opinion, are the criteria of creativeness.

Creativity stands at the center of all education.

I think if you study--if you learn too much of what others have done, you may tend to take the same direction as everybody else.

Don't 'discover' a subject of any kind.

No one can be profoundly original who does not avoid eccentricity.

Every great inspiration is but an experiment - though every experiment we know, is not a great inspiration.

Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.

What is now proved was once only imagined.

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.

You want to do something, you want to have the bravery to do something original. And there will always be people who are like, the classicists who are like, 'No, but it's got to have this.' In life, there are people like that attached to every single thing that there is. These are the same people that are like, still playing vinyl.

If I can create some space that people haven't experienced before and if it stays with them or gives them a dream for the future, that's the kind of structure I seek to create.

For me, I love to dream big, and I love to find ways to be a bit of an explorer. These days, it seems like everything is padded and comes with warning labels.

The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.

Definition is the death of discovery.

Learning is the new skill. Imagination, creation and asking new questions are at its core.

The day you stop learning and creating must be the most boring day.

It's very important to understand that we never do the same thing twice; each of our projects is unique. We'll never do another 'Gates.' Each project is a unique image. We do not know in advance how the work will look. I do preparatory drawings, but they are only projections of our vision.

If you're ahead of your time, who's going to listen? If you're behind the times, it's boring.

I think we always move from imitation to assimilation to innovation, but I can't name you 20 people outside those we've already recognized who ever got to point three: innovation.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

I don't study; I create.

In order to be creative you have to be allowed to fail.