Art and creativity are at the heart of what it means to be human. They’re not just hobbies or pastimes but essential aspects of our existence.
When we create, whether it’s through painting, writing, designing, or any other form of expression, we touch upon something profound within ourselves. It’s like discovering the meaning of life, a moment of clarity where we become acutely aware of who we are.
Think about how you feel when you’re immersed in creating something. There’s a unique blend of joy, focus, and satisfaction that comes from bringing an idea to life.
Our productivity in creative endeavors reflects how we perceive our worth and our place in the universe. It’s through these acts of creation that we connect with others, sharing a part of ourselves and our perspectives.
In this article, I’ve gathered 111 of the famous quotes about art and creativity to inspire and motivate you. Dive in, and let these words spark your imagination and fuel your creative spirit.
Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity.
Maya Angelou, Poet and Writer
Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.
Pablo Picasso, Painter
Creativity is contagious, pass it on
Albert Einstein, Physicist
If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
Vincent Van Gogh, Painter
Creativity takes courage.
Henri Matisse, Painter
Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.
Salvador Dali, Painter
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
Albert Einstein, Physicist
Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art
Andy Warhol, Artist
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
Andre Gide, Writer
We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.
Bob Ross, Painter
You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not’?
George Bernard Shaw, Playwright
Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
Leonardo da Vinci, Painter
You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.
Jack London, Writer
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
Maya Angelou, Poet and Writer
Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you’re passionate about something, then you’re more willing to take risks.
Yo-Yo Ma, Cellist
Every artist was first an amateur.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essayist
There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
Vincent van Gogh, Painter
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
Pablo Picasso, Painter
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.
George Bernard Shaw, Playwright
Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
Claude Monet, Painter
Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.
Bill Moyers, Journalist
Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
Charles Mingus, Musician
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.
Georgia O’Keeffe, Painter
I hold that the perfection of form and beauty is contained in the sum of all men.
Albrecht Dürer, Painter and Printmaker
Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.
Edgar Degas, Painter and Sculptor
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
In art, what we want is the certainty that one spark of original genius shall not be extinguished.
Mary Cassatt, Painter
A work of art which isn’t based on feeling isn’t art at all.
Paul Cézanne, Painter
The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
Sylvia Plath, Poet
Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.
Ray Bradbury, Writer
Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
Ai Weiwei, Artist and Activist
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.
Steve Jobs, Entrepreneur
Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.
Cecil B. DeMille, Filmmaker
Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm.
Earl Nightingale, Motivational Speaker
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Scott Adams, Cartoonist
Creative work is a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.
Steven Pressfield, Writer
It is wise to learn; it is God-like to create.
John Saxe, Poet
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton, Writer
Art is the stored honey of the human soul.
Theodore Dreiser, Novelist
Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.
Edgar Degas, Painter and Sculptor
I think of art as the highest level of creativity. To me, it is one of the greatest sources of enjoyment.
David Rockefeller, Philanthropist
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.
Jim Jarmusch, Filmmaker
Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
Walt Disney Company, Entertainment
To practice any art, no matter how well or how badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. So do it.
Kurt Vonnegut, Writer
The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live only as you can.
Neil Gaiman, Author
Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.
Donatella Versace, Fashion Designer
I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.
Vincent van Gogh, Painter
If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.
Edward Hopper, Painter
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Andy Warhol, Artist
Great art picks up where nature ends.
Marc Chagall, Painter
The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.
Piet Mondrian, Painter
Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.
Salvador Dali, Painter
To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.
Osho, Philosopher and Spiritual Teacher
When you make music or write or create, it’s really your job to have mind-blowing, irresponsible, condomless sex with whatever idea it is you’re writing about at the time.
Lady Gaga, Singer, Songwriter
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
Francis Bacon, Painter
To create one’s own world takes courage.
Georgia O’Keeffe, Painter
The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.
Auguste Rodin, Sculptor
It is important to express oneself…provided the feelings are real and are taken from your own experience.
Berthe Morisot, Painter
To be an artist is to believe in life.
Henry Moore, Sculptor
The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.
Pablo Picasso, Painter
Every good painter paints what he is.
Jackson Pollock, Painter
In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essayist
Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.
Georgia O’Keeffe, Painter
What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.
Eugene Delacroix, Painter
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.
Martha Graham, Dancer and Choreographer
Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.
Brené Brown, Researcher and Author
Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.
Marc Chagall, Painter
Don’t be an art critic, but paint; there lies salvation.
Paul Cézanne, Painter
If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.
Marc Chagall, Painter
A good artist has less time than ideas.
Martin Kippenberger, Painter
I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.
Frida Kahlo, Painter
I paint for myself. I don’t know how to do anything else, anyway. Also, I have to earn my living and occupy myself.
Francis Bacon, Painter
There is no must in art because art is free.
Wassily Kandinsky, Painter
Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.
Leonardo da Vinci, Painter and Inventor
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
Michelangelo, Sculptor
Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye, it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.
Edvard Munch, Painter
Painting is a means of self-enlightenment.
John Olsen, Painter
Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.
Twyla Tharp, Choreographer
An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.
Charles Horton Cooley, Sociologist
One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.
Leonardo da Vinci, Painter and Inventor
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
Aristotle, Philosopher
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
Oscar Wilde, Playwright
Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.
Pablo Picasso, Painter
Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.
Stella Adler, Actress and Director
I invent nothing, I rediscover.
Auguste Rodin, Sculptor
I would rather die of passion than of boredom.
Vincent van Gogh, Artist
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Henry Ward Beecher, Author
The chief enemy of creativity is ‘good’ sense.
Pablo Picasso, Artist
Creativity is magic. Don’t examine it too closely.
Edward Albee, Playwright
Art is not a thing, it is a way.
Elbert Hubbard, Writer
I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say, ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly’.
Vincent van Gogh, Painter
Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.
Pablo Picasso, Painter
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.
James McNeill Whistler, Artist
Art is never finished, only abandoned.
Leonardo Da Vinci, Artist
Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.
Andy Warhol, Artist
Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.
Vincent Van Gogh, Artist
Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.
Paul Klee, Artist
Art is a line around your thoughts.
Gustav Klimt, Artist
Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.
Pablo Picasso, Artist
Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.
Pablo Picasso, Artist
The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.
Paul Strand, Photographer
I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.
Vincent Van Gogh, Artist
The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.
Robert Henri, Artist
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
Henry Thomas Buckle, Historian
Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
C.E.M. Joad, Philosopher
We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.
Kurt Vonnegut, Writer
Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.
Rumi, Poet
I’d love to hear from you! What are your favorite quotes? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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