"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist."

"Failure sucks, but instructs."

"Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people."

"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out."

"If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love, and don't stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don't compromise, and don't waste time. Start now. Not 20 years from now, not two weeks from now. Now."

"Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art."

"Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good."

"The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones."

"What's the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules."

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."

"There are no formulas in creative work. I do many variations, which is a question of curiosity. I arrive at many different configurations ­- some just slight variations, others more radical - of an original idea. It is a game of evolution."

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

"Divergent thinking isn't the same as creativity. I define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value. Divergent thinking isn't a synonym but is an essential capacity for creativity. It is the ability to see lots of possible answers to a question, lots of possible ways to interpret a question, to think laterally, to think not just in linear or convergent ways, to see multiple answers, not one."

"Failure is built into creativity... the creative act involves this element of 'newness' and 'experimentalism,' then one must expect and accept the possibility of failure."

"Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion."

Creative and novel pursuits transform lives and changes how we live for the better. Human creativity drives us forward as a species. It's this unique ability to harness thoughts and ideas that have evolved our habits and how we live. But creativity can sometimes feel​ elusive.

MARTHA GRAHAM

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