This week, I’m inspired by these 16 quotes about the creative process.  I love being creative and I love to find out how others are inspired or how they use their creativity.  It all interests me and I hope you’re able to find some inspiration here too!

Back in November, I wrote a post called Try This If You Want To Be Creative.  It was just about doing it (whatever “it” was for you,) because you must.  And these quotes speak to that need to be creative.

The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off; it’s with you all the time.
Alvin Ailey

I devote most of my day to writing, and try to turn out at least four pages a day. As for what triggers the creative process, it’s a mystery to me! Characters often just walk on the page, and I wait to see what they do and say while I’m writing them.
Tess Gerritsen

I enjoy looking at words on paper and visualizing how to make them come to life. As a director, the creative process is really amazing.
Alfonso Ribeiro

My hand is the extension of the thinking process – the creative process.
Tadao Ando

The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.
Julia Cameron

In How to Tap Into Your Creativity, I discuss the importance of remembering how to play and have fun.  And these quotes remind us of the same thing.

The creative process is mysterious; a conversation, a ride in the car, or a melody can trigger something.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I like to collaborate on my music. The creative process is fun, and you get a lot of ideas from having discussions about it. Ultimately, the final decision is mine.
Janet Jackson

Because of my poor writing posture, I started walking in the forest every day, and I found it a potent place to be creatively. It changed me in that it was a new way of doing my creative process, and I realised how much I liked being among tall trees.
Morris Gleitzman

It’s also about using your imagination to make connections and create new things as we discussed in Use Your Imagination.

I have a very clear vision as to what I want at the end of my prep, and then I throw it out and let the creative process take over.
David Boreanaz

What I love about the creative process, and this may sound naive, but it is this idea that one day there is no idea, and no solution, but the next day there is an idea. I find that incredibly exciting and conceptually actually remarkable.
Jonathan Ive

When I started ‘Record Collection,’ I had no idea that it would come out sounding the way that it did, and that’s one of the best things about the creative process, taking turns with the things you didn’t know.
Mark Ronson

Choosing is a creative process, one through which we construct our environment, our lives, ourselves.
Sheena Iyengar

It’s important to remember that sometimes daydreaming or distracting yourself with mundane tasks is what is needed, as discussed in this post, Daydream Believing.

I do find walking is fundamental to my creative process.
Baz Luhrmann

Many of the cognitive enhancement drugs serve to increase focus and concentration. But ‘letting your mind wander’ is very often an important part of the creative process.
Jamais Cascio

My creative process is quite slow. I hear melodies in my head while I’m washing the dishes and I allow my subconscious to do the work.
Sinead O’Connor

If you wrap it all together it works out like this:

There are really three parts to the creative process. First there is inspiration, then there is the execution, and finally there is the release.
Eddie Van Halen

Get inspired by other artists. Find out how they create each day and get inspired!