Nelda Swiggett's Wisdom Page

We artists are indestructible; even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell.

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

There is a fountain of youth: It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring in your life and the lives of people you love.

Another word for creativity is courage.

Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm.

Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity.

The whole difference between construction and creation is this; that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.

All the lies and evasions by which man has nourished himself -- civilization, in a word is the fruits of the creative artist. It is the creative nature of man which has refused to let him lapse back into that unconscious unity with life which characterizes the animal world from which he made his escape.

The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things: ancient history, nineteenth-century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later or six months, or six years down the road. But he has faith that it will happen.