Creative Resilience Quotes

All great innovations are built on rejections.

People who are creative, who do it as a lifestyle, it's kind of silly to make that claim you're done, because you just never know when that spark is going to hit you again. You can't necessarily predict how you're going to feel. In ten years I'll be 58, and I might still feel like making a punk record.

You're only as good as your body of work, and everybody has issues, whether it's Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese. I'm not comparing myself to those guys, but you learn more from the misses than the hits.

I am what I am again: a writer. I have metabolized the injury into art.

An artist needs to live to create, and to live means to suffer.

My first novel was turned down by half a dozen publishers. And even after having published five or six books, I wasn't making enough money to live on, and was beginning to think I'd have to give up the dream of being a full-time writer.

Talent is extremely common. What is rare is the willingness to endure the life of the writer.

When your art fails, make better art.

Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.

There's very few people, who really thrive creatively under great stress and conflict.

I wouldn't have been in the mind-set to do another 'Fly.'

I know a lot of artists and chefs don't talk about this, but sometimes you just don't get to the finish line. That honesty and tenderness is something we're kind of not supposed to express.

I still have my talent. Emperors cannot take that away. As long as there is a Roman Empire, I will be read.

When things go wrong, this is what you should do. Make good art.

Is despair wrong? Isn’t it the natural condition of life after a certain age? … After a number of events, what is there left but repetition and diminishment? Who wants to go on living? The eccentric, the religious, the artistic (sometimes); those with a false sense of their own worth. Soft cheeses collapse; firm cheeses endurate. Both go mouldy.

I can't let fear kill my creative brain. Fear is the killer. Your bad choices come from fear. And I'm constantly combating fear. I'm one of the most fearful people, which may be why I'm so sensitive about it. I combat fear, constantly. So, when something like this happens, it only makes us stronger, but it reminds you that your strength is by being able to fight that stuff off and being okay with failure. If I get everything I wish and I get to make movies for the rest of my life, I'm going to have many failures and I need to be okay with that.

History has proven that it's impossible to crush the artist. There's always gonna be a need for somebody to write a poem or sing a song about something, about life - that makes it real. There's the word that goes beyond the word.

I've lost, but I also gained a lot. I'm a creative person, and no one can take that away from me. I've been told I committed professional suicide because it was the only escape from the terrible pressures I was facing. What do you think?

There's a period where you feel very hinky and low about yourself, like, 'That was a lot of time, and there's nothing to show for it.' I've tried to tell myself that if you're going to be a filmmaker, you can't really talk like that about time, because you'll hate yourself or feel very worthless.

I'm always impressed with what young people can do before older people tell them it's impossible

I started writing 'Leaves Of Grass' when my professional life was falling apart somewhat. I just had a movie implode in pre-production. And so I came back licking my wounds to New York, where I live, and started to write a script about a protagonist for whom the exact same thing happened: His life was falling apart.

I left my band on my own, and it took me a long time to find major success again - almost a decade. And everything that didn't happen during that time just motivated me to do better.

Just because I make something doesn't mean that it's going to be amazing, and most creative people don't like to admit when their music is just okay.

One of the most valuable things one of my art teachers said to me was, ‘Don’t get upset by criticism. Value the fact that at least someone noticed what you did.