All creative people need resources. Here are some of my favorite references and sources of inspiration.
Many of these authors have more than one book; make sure to check out the others as well.
Where can you look for inspiration? EVERYWHERE!
Read, read, read, read, read, read, read! Reading is one of the best ways to fill your head with stuff! Browse through a new section of the library or bookstore. Pick up a magazine about a field you know nothing about. Listen to audiobooks in the car or before bed.
I especially enjoy reading books about the creative process. Some of my favorites include books by John Hench, Milton Glaser, Chuck Jones, Paul Rand and the Disney Imagineers. I love looking at the concept art and seeing the process of idea development in the Art of [insert your favorite movie title here] books, , such as The Art of Spirited Away, The Art of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Art of Monsters, Inc.
Try a new restaurant, a new grocery store, a new vegetable. Learn about wine or cheese or cooking with flowers. Buy a cookbook, find a new recipe or just improvise in the kitchen. If all else fails, eat chocolate (the darker the better).
Listen to something you are unfamiliar with. My favorites are soundtracks (evocative and visual) and classical (uplifting and inspiring). Listen to something with a different beat, or from a different country or something using instruments you have never heard of (glass armonica, anyone?).
The creative spirit is more than an occasional insight or whimsical flourish. When the creative spirit stirs, it animates a style of being: a lifetime filled with the desire to innovate, to explore new ways of doing things, to bring dreams to reality. ~ Daniel Goleman, Paul Kaufman and Michael Ray, The Creative Spirit
No matter who you are, the creative spirit can enter your life. It is at hand for anyone with the urge to tinker, to explore new possibilities, to leave things a little better than before. ~ Daniel Goleman, Paul Kaufman and Michael Ray, The Creative Spirit
I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else along the way. ~ Franklin Adams
The magic of creativity is that it takes all the disparate bits of your life and makes sense of them, combining them is ways no one else can, because no one else has your knowledge, personality or experience. ~ Clare Warmke and Lisa Buchanan, Idea Revolution
Who can help me? What if I fall? When can I find the time? Where do my dreams fit in a crowded world? How can I lift my head above the awesome daily tasks of life? Why art, why storytelling, why look with new eyes? Why strive for the impossible, why be creative, why do all this? We’d willingly search everywhere for the secrets of creativity like Voltaire’s Candide, who traveled the world over, experiencing gruesome adventures, seeking the best of all worlds, only to end up at home on a little farm, where he reminds himself with quiet regularity, “We must cultivate our own garden.” In the end, there is no magic formula for creativity out there. It is all within you. ~ Don Hahn, Dancing Corn Dogs in the Night
All this searching for creative achievement may seem like a lonely and at times meaningless pursuit on the fringes of society, but it is not. The creative forces at play within us are the essence of our humanity, and there is something truly heroic about it—this heroism of the seeking mind. This willingness to leap into the void, to illuminate the darkness, to remove the blinders from our eyes and from the eyes of our fellow man. It is this heroism of the creator that drives the evolution of the human species and gives validity and meaning to our life’s journey. And so all the pain, the insecurity, the buffeting, and the doubt seem justified in the knowledge that we can ultimately soar above the confines of our anxieties and experience something bigger than ourselves. We can offer up our very personal gift to the human project and in doing so come closer to...happiness than ever before. ~ Don Hahn, Dancing Corn Dogs in the Night
We create because we have to. It’s what we do. Every day our senses are bombarded with a spectrum of impressions. These impressions imprint powerfully on our souls. We can keep these impressions inside where they can build up and clog our drain or we can spill them out in wonderfully flowing expressions about how we interpret life. We are meant to express how we feel about life. It’s like breathing: Inhale the experiences of life, exhale how you feel about them. We are at our best when we can turn our impressions into expressions. The equation goes like this: impression without expression equals depression. ~ Don Hahn, Dancing Corn Dogs in the Night
Just like a skydiver, the defining moment in writing, cooking, architecture, or dance is when you decide to leave the safety of inaction and leap into the unknown void. The courage and willingness to jump into that void and feel the rush of the wind in the hope that you will be able to spread your wings and fly…that is the touchstone of the creative process. We’ve got an idea and we are flush with anticipation. Our mind races with the possibilities. We leap. ~ Don Hahn, Dancing Corn Dogs in the Night
The process is where the treasure of creativity is buried. It’s the feeling you get when you are immersed in a project with your head down and all one billion brain cells are immersed in trying to forge idea, craft, and medium into a new creation…~ Don Hahn, Dancing Corn Dogs in the Night
...inspiring solutions often come from a mind that wanders and hops, meanders and skips from topic to topic. ~ Clare Warmke and Lisa Buchanan, Idea Revolution
The artist is not a different kind of person, but every person is a different kind of artist. ~ Eric Gill
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after he grows up. ~ Pablo Picasso
Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better. ~ John Updike
Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed. ~ Tom Clancy
Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. ~ George Lois
Limitless possibilities
The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.
~ Emily Dickinson
Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun. ~ Mary Lou Cook
Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. ~ Edward de Bono
The ability to relate and to connect, sometimes in odd and yet striking fashion, lies at the very heart of any creative use of the mind, no matter what field or discipline.
~ George Seidel
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. ~ Scott Adams
Creativity is the confidence to know that you'll get there even though you are the missing the roadmap and the road and the car and the fuel. ~ Leigh White, Idea Revolution
Your very own creative license ! (Adobe Acrobat file, 107k)