Group Creativity Quotes

When we write, we complement each other. We wrote six songs, Barry and I, while Robin was ill during the American tour, and they were terrible until Robin came back, and then everything worked out.

Genius is individual, scenius is communal.

Sonic Youth has always been the vehicle for my writing, you know, because it's a collective songwriting entity: we write our songs as a group.

The best ideas are common property.

When you get the right people together, writing music becomes very effortless.

When we work together as a group we don't contribute individually as much as I do when I'm working on my solos. I try to give as much input when I'm working on a song or album but as a group it's kind of difficult since there are five of us. Having all of us contribute to the same extent is a little more challenging than when doing our own things.

When it's a sharing and improvisational meeting, where you're riffing off other people's ideas, that actually can be productive.

Our albums just tend to be collections of songs really, because we all write in the group, all four of us.

Sonic Youth has a very democratic process for the most part. It almost doesn't matter who brings in an initial idea; everything gets worked over by the band and kind of co-written by everyone in the end because everyone's ideas get contributed to it.

Movies are a collective art. Art by proxy.

It's a very collaborative environment [making The Office]. We always do takes of how it's scripted, but then we also mix it up a lot too. And it's kind of a crapshoot, you never know which one... I mean a lot of time improvisation doesn't go anywhere and it's not good at all but, so what was written is often times better.

It's easier to be creative if you've got other people to play with.

But it can be hard to experiment when you're in a band.

I think in most cases, if you're with good people, comedy creation happens faster in collaboration. That's how I can tell if it's a good collaboration: If it's faster than me by myself, then it works. If it's slower than me by myself, then I get out of the room.

I've always loved playing in bands where there's like three or four people and we're all throwing out ideas and coming together to make an album.

Obviously Mad TV, SNL are one kind of show, whereas The State belongs to the kind of show that is entirely conceived written and performed by a set group that existed before the TV show.

I love jamming with my band because the guys inspire me every time. We all get off on each other's playing.

If you get to participate with a group of artists and make something that's really truthful, that's about the highest you can go, in my opinion.

The need for the creation of collective art and ritual on a nonclerical basis is at least as important as literacy and higher education.

I'm very fortunate in that all the mediums I work in are extremely collaborative. Movies are probably the most solitary on a day to day basis, but even then you have producers and studio executives to work with and bounce ideas off of.

When you have four people writing lyrics instead of one person, the lyrics are going to be a little more broad.

Research shows that the deciscions of a group as a whole are more thoughtful and creative when there is minority dissent than when it is absent.

Today, the solitary inventor has been over-shadowed by groups of scientists.

In spite of my great admiration for individual splendid talents I do not accept the star system. Collective creative effort is the root of our kind of art. That requires ensemble acting and whoever mars that ensemble is committing a crime not only against his comrades but also against the very art of which he is the servant.

We really try to make sure that the band writes the songs, not just one person.