Joss Whedon Quotes

Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all.

To be creative you actually have to do something.

You can't buy something which does not exist. In a way, let's make things exist and then judge later. Don't cancel the process of creativity too early; let it flow.

In art, anything goes, and if it goes, it goes.

I believe in creative work.

Part of the fun is finding out how elastic that box is and, you know, test the limits of what TV shows can do or what a music video can do.

There are no laws by which we can write Iliads.

Writing is flying in dreams. When you remember. When you can. When it works. It's that easy.

Artists aren't looking for you to write them something; they're looking for you to give them something new.

It's better to create something that others criticise than to create nothing and criticise others. Go create, have fun!!

To idealize: all writing is a campaign against cliché. Not just clichés of the pen but clichés of the mind and clichés of the heart.

An artist's job is to surprise himself. Use all means possible.

Art isn't about following the rules. It's about breaking them.

Don't just consume things, create things

If you’re going to create, create a lot. Creativity is not like playing the slot machines, where failure to win means you go home broke. With creativity, if you don’t win, you’re usually no worse off than if you hadn’t played.

Everyone wants a definition of creativity that makes what they do into something special and what everyone else does into nothing special. But the fact is, we're all creative. We come up with weird and interesting ideas all the time. The biggest difference between 'creators' isn't their imagination - it's how hard they work. Ideas are easy. Doing stuff is hard.

You can't have good ideas unless you have lots of ideas.

- But Abraham, you mean I'm supposed to make stuff up !?!? - You are creators, you make stuff up all the time!

Here's the truth you have to wrestle with: the reason that art (writing, engaging, leading, all of it) is valuable is precisely why I can't tell you how to do it. If there were a map, there'd be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map. Don't you hate that? I love that there's no map.

I think one of the things about creativity is not to be afraid of saying the wrong thing.

I’m an artist who is always looking for what is possible. I’m always looking to extend the boundaries.

Without the word dream, or the concept dream, and without the word blue and the emotions, I would have been really limited in the things I've written and performed.

I can't really say - if I've run out of ideas until I've had my next set of ideas.

The only pictures worth making are the ones that are playing with fire.

Draw a line; draw a line that pleases you. And remember that it is not the artist's role to copy the outlines of things but to create a world of his own lines on paper." (pp.28-29)