If you were siting there worrying whether or not you were drawing something that is going to be influential, you're not going to be able to think of anything. You have to kind of bend over the drawing board, shut the world out, and just draw something that you hope is funny.
I suppose when a composer is composing well, the music is coming faster than he can think of it. And when I have a good idea, I can hardly get the words down fast enough. I'm afraid that they will leave me before I get them down on the paper. And sometimes, um, my hand will literally shake with excitement as I'm drawing it because I'm having a good time. Unfortunately this does not happen every day.
I studied art in a correspondence course because I was afraid to go to art school. I couldn't see myself sitting in a room where everyone else in the room could draw much better than I, and this way I was protected by drawing at home and simply mailing my drawing in and having them criticize.
I wish I had a better education, but I think that my entire background made me well suited for what I do. If I could write better than I can, perhaps I would have tried to become a novelist, and I might have become a failure. If I could draw better than I can, I might have tried to become an illustrator or an artist, and would have failed there. But my entire being seems to be just right for being a cartoonist.
Reading after a certain age diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking, just as the man who spends too much time in the theater is tempted to be content with living vicariously instead of living his own life.
Much reading after a certain age diverts the mind from its creative pursuits.
I’ve found that the only way I can keep writing every day, year after year, is to let my mind wander into new territories. To do that, I’ve had to cultivate a kind of mental playfulness.
You have to develop under the influence of the spirit if you want the spirit to show through in the final product.
At first it may have seemed that a worldwide pandemic would be a roadblock to the Lord’s work. For example, traditional methods of sharing the gospel have not been possible. However, the pandemic is revealing new and more creative ways of reaching out to the honest in heart. The work of gathering Israel is increasing in power and enthusiasm. Hundreds and thousands of stories attest to this.
In the past, we might have been so tied to traditional approaches that it took a pandemic to open our eyes. Perhaps we were still building with sandstone when granite was already available. Of necessity, we are now learning how to use a variety of methods, including technology, to invite people—in normal and natural ways—to come and see, come and help, and come and belong.
...I think the biggest thrill in life is to have a dream or imagine something and then get to see it be real.
Experience has taught me that the more specifically I phrase the requests and instructions that I direct to my subconscious, the more successful the exercise will become.
There is a fine line between sensitivity and sentimentality…Sensitivity seems to touch and uplift the listener, while sentimentality goes one step too far and plays on the listener's emotions in an uncomfortable way.
I tend to stay up late, not because I'm partying but because it's the only time of the day when I'm alone and don't have to be on, performing.
The imagination is always restless and suggests a variety of thoughts, and the will, reason being laid aside, is ready for every extravagant project;
Passion is the love of creation. Creation is its own gift.
Creation is a patient search.
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
Find your creative/thinking time. Defend it ruthlessly, spend it alone, maybe at home.
There’s a reason very few creative people wear suits and ties. Audacious ideas rarely spring from boardrooms and office cubicles. They come from getting out and about and experiencing life in its most inspiring settings. Creativity doesn’t wear a uniform, nor should creators.
You're at your best when you're not trying too hard.
Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value. Look around at how people want to get more out of life than they put in. A man of value will give more than he receives. Be creative, but make sure that what you create is not a curse for mankind.
Reading after a certain age diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities.
Readers are plentiful, thinkers are rare.
Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
When we put down ideas of what life should be like, we are free to wholeheartedly say yes to our life as it is.
If you were siting there worrying whether or not you were drawing something that is going to be influential, you're not going to be able to think of anything. You have to kind of bend over the drawing board, shut the world out, and just draw something that you hope is funny.
Missing Reference