Product Description

In an inspirational compendium of writings, a distinguished group of filmmakers, artists, poets, writers, painters, and musicians reflect on creative expression, its significance in human life, ways to harness its power, and its role in building a successful society. Original.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49297 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.com Review
In this collection of essays by the world's most renowned creative-types--Ingmar Bergman, Maurice Sendak, Frank Zappa, and Maya Angelou--we learn time and again that the act of creation is a willingness to encounter the unknown. If we never risk losing control and wallow in the murky depths of our beings, how will we ever meet our potential? Laurence Olivier talks about going naked. Federico Fellini romances the virtue of passion. Mary Shelley speaks frankly about the genesis of Frankenstein. This is chicken soup for the soul of any creator.

Customer Reviews

Psychology of Creativity
This was by far one of the greatest books that I have ever read on psychology. It was funny, touching, sweet, but most of all thought provoking. As an aspiring artist, it helped me to comprehend myself a little better. The book is a compilation of essays, interviews, and writings by different creative individuals. From the flamboyant Maya Angenlou to the brilliant Federico Fellini. Probably the most moving and amusing segment of the book was the segment written by Frank Zappa, who explains creativity in a way that no other could. Sure genius.

Serendipity
I picked up this book idly and became interested in it. The selections are good. The creative mind is both full and empty. Serendipity means coming on an unexpected treasure. Cathy Johnson explains that her father had an unshakable need to wander.

Richard Feynman reports that teaching is an interruption, but that the questions of the students are often a source of new research. When Feynman felt burnt out at Cornell someone threw a plate in the cafeteria. He saw it wobble so he started to figure out the motion of a rotating plate. It was effortless. It was easy. It was like uncorking a bottle. His mind started to flow.

Kary Mullis, molecular biologist, notes that important inventions almost always cross disciplines. Mullis discovered the PCR, Polymerase chain reaction. It is widely used by molecular biologists. What is necessary for creative activity may be quite destructive of other kinds of activity. Yeats thought that rhythm prolongs contemplation. Annie Dillard sees herself as an explorer and also a stalker.

Italo Calvino relates that in devising a story the first thing that comes to mind is an image. In the acutal writing of the story, the words, the verbal aspect start to become more important. Imagination is a repertory of what is potential. The imagination is a kind of electronic machine. Michel Foucault suggests that utopias afford consolation although they have no real locality. Those who have creative power find the strength of mind to reject what is not true.

Mabel Dodge Luhan describes an experience with peyote where she had a momentary glimpse of life given by an expansion of consciousness. Creativity lives and dies within an ecology. Maya Angelou believes that black American art is rooted in music. N. Scott Momaday feels that southwestern landscape, turning up frequently in his writing, is more spiritual. He does not see any validity in separating man from the landscape. The oral tradition of the American Indian is intrinsically poetic. The Indian has the advantage of a very rich spiritual experience.

The creative process involves a tension between opposites. All the factors of creativity can be increased through training. The discipline and routine of creativity do not have to be boring. Stravinsky writes that all creation presupposes a sort of appetite. He believed that we have a duty towards music, namely to invent it. The faculty of creating is never given to us by itself.

Very inspiring and descriptive
As a composer, I bought this specifically to figure out how to hunt down creativity and not wait for it to hit me. This book delves into the sources of creativity from many famous and successful people, and it's from the people themselves. It's a pretty easy read, and the subjects speak from such a personal origin that it seems intuitive. I'd highly recommend it if you're a writer, a musician, a film maker, an artist, anyone in the creative field.