The whole ‚enigmatic artist‘ thing, I just ran with it.

Having unlimited choices can paralyze you creatively.

Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.

A collection is not just one basic idea. It comes from something that is in the air, something you suddenly like and put down on paper and then work out.

I don’t think that you can be prescriptive about anything, I mean, life is too complicated. Maybe there are novels where the author has not in the least thought about it in terms of film, which can be turned into good films.

Begin noticing and being careful about keeping your imagination free of thoughts that you do not wish to materialize. Instead, initiate a practice of filling your creative thoughts to overflow with ideas and wishes that you fully intend to manifest. Honor your imaginings regardless of others seeing them as crazy or impossible.

Artistic temperament is the disease that afflicts amateurs.

The concept of commercialism in the fashion and art world is looked down upon. You know, just to think, ‚What amount of creativity does it take to make something that masses of people like?‘ And, ‚How does creativity apply across the board?‘

Most of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don’t fit in a very interesting way.

‚For Whom the Bell Tolls‘ was a problem which I carried on each day. I knew what was going to happen in principle. But I invented what happened each day I wrote.

Once I’ve written something it does tend to run away from me. I don’t seem to have any part of it – it’s no longer my piece of writing.

Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o’clock in the morning can only produce writing that matches what they do. And that includes me.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

It’s kind of exhilarating, walking through a crazy, insane mob. The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.

When I was making ‚Star Wars,‘ I wasn’t restrained by any kind of science. I simply said, ‚I’m going to create a world that’s fun and interesting, makes sense, and seems to have a reality to it.‘

All of my writing is God-given.

There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

I love dresses, and I’ve definitely thought about designing them someday. I just want to make sure that I wait until the time is perfect and I can do it right.

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.

All of my music is honest.

Like anything else that happens on its own, the act of writing is beyond currency. Money is great stuff to have, but when it comes to the act of creation, the best thing is not to think of money too much. It constipates the whole process.

Fiction is based on reality unless you’re a fairytale artist.

If I had a stock of fabulous sounds I would just always use them. I wouldn’t bother to find new ones.

You should treat a muse like a fairy.

Wherever you write is supposed to be a little bit of a refuge, a place where you can get away from the world. The more closed in you are, the more you’re forced back on your own imagination.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

You make a movie, and if somebody reads something into it, then great, more power to him.

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.

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

I don’t control my writing – it controls me.

If you check your ego at the door when it comes to comedy, you’ve got a pretty good shot at making a great movie that you can commit yourself to, you can jump off the proverbial cliff with, and have a great time, and the audiences respond to that.

Every now and then I will see a word as if for the first time, and suddenly appreciate that Evian is ‚naive‘ spelled backward, or that Bosnia is an anagram of ‚bonsai.‘

I’m always interested in what you can do with technology that people haven’t thought of doing yet.

Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.

Genius is a potential that lives within you and every other human being. You have many moments of genius in your lifetime. These are the times when you have a uniquely brilliant idea and implement it even if only you are aware of how fantastic it is.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

I think songwriting is the ultimate form of being able to make anything that happens in your life productive.

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

I am a dangerous man when turned loose with a typewriter.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

I always had music growing up, but music was also like a journal. It was like my personal diary or personal journal. A lot of the things I couldn’t express to an individual, I would express them in my music.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

There’s an ecstatic side to writing. It’s like jazz. It just has a life.

And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.

I don’t think a song should be put in a category.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

A true artist is expected to be all that is noble-minded, and this is not altogether a mistake; on the other hand, however, in what a mean way are critics allowed to pounce upon us.

Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days.

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.

Sometimes I get the start of a story from a memory, an anecdote, but that gets lost and is usually unrecognizable in the final story.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

Sometimes I’ll jot a clever turn of phrase down. Sometimes I’ll just remember it.

Whenever I make music, it reflects where I’m at mentally.

I want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer’s block.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.