The Creative Mind

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

—Mary Oliver

Perhaps the art of harvesting the secret riches of our lives is best achieved when we place profound trust in the act of beginning. Risk might be our greatest ally. To live a truly creative life, we always need to cast a critical look at where we presently are, attempting always to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginning might

Oliver Burkeman on what people who’d like to keep making a living from creativity should do in the face of AI:

"For me, it means two things. First: that AI tools belong in my workflow only to the extent that they help me achieve the overarching goals of human connection. This is the Amish approach to technology: first, clarify your values; then adop

“— you know, I've either had a family, a job, something
has always been in the
way

but now
I've sold my house, I've found this
place, a large studio, you should see the space and
the light.
for the first time in my life I'm going to have a place and
the time to
create.'

no baby, if you're going to create
you're going to create whether you work
16 hours a day i

When I watch a Miyazaki film I can’t help but think about his attunement to the world, the presence it requires to transmute the real world into a fantastical one. That’s the interesting contradiction of writers and artists, I suppose: alienation is a necessity, but so is participation. The point of getting better is to be more in the world.

Larry David said in an interview that at the end of each season of Curb your Enthusiasm, he feels there are no more good ideas and questions whether there could be another season.

“So at the end of the season, there’s this hole — there aren’t any ideas that he really likes — so how could he possibly do another season? He’s the only person on the pla

The trick is having this help us, by creating a creative tension that makes us want to be better, instead of discouraging us. We must be OK with never arriving, and crave the work anyways.

-Austin Kleon

From Franz Kafka’s letters (inspo for when the going gets tough, just do something/anything):

Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.