The is an absolutely wonderful book on creativity. I took my time and took loads of notes, which you can see photos of below.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Artists are all translators for messages that the universe is broadcasting.
• Be more spontaneous than analytical
• Meet ordinary experiences with awe
• Have no facade and no attachment to story
• Preserve your childlike qualities
• Art is the circulation of energetic ideas
• The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity
• The act of creation is a longing to transcend.
• Art is a portal to an unseen world.
• Look for what you notice that no one else sees.
• Awareness needs constant refreshing.
• Live your life in a constant state of openness to receiving.
• We tend to think of artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.
• There is always something new to notice and it is up to us to find it.
• The people who choose to do art are often the most vulnerable.
• Adversity is part of the process of making art.
• Getting to create is a privilege.
• You’re not playing to win, you’re playing to play.
• All art is a work in progress.
• Remove intention and all that is left is an ornamental shell.
• Art is confrontation.
• Approach your work with as few accepted rules, starting points, and limitations as possible.
• For any rule you accept, it would be helpful to try the opposite.
• Examine your methods and consider what the opposite would be.
• Formulating an opinion is not listening. To listen impatiently is to hear nothing at all.  Listening is suspending disbelief. Listening without prejudice is how we grow.  Listening opens up possibilities.
• Patience is accepting that the majority of the work we do is out of our control.
• Tune into what enlivens us in the moment, instead of what we think ‘will work.’
• Innocence brings forth innovation.
• Act out of inate instinct, not learned behavior.
• Value play above all else.
• See the extraordinary in the seemingly mundane.
• Inspiration is the immediate influence of the divine. Treat moments of inspiration with devotion.
• Consider varying your inputs. Break habits. Look for differences. Notice connections. Find awe.
• The only person you are ever competing against is yourself.
• Discipline and freedom are not opposites, they are partners.
• Believe you are good enough. Claim and accept that you have enough energy. Question suggestions of limitation.
• If you know what you want to do and you do it, that is the work of a craftsman. If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of an artist.
• Failure is the information you need to get where you are going.
• “The personal is universal.” Carl Rogers
• The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are, and how we see the world.
• Great art opens a conversation.
• The best art divides the audience. If everyone likes it, you probably haven’t gone far enough. In the end, you are the only one who has to love it.
• “Comparison is the thief of joy” Theodore Roosevelt
• Living in discovery is at all times preferable to living through assumptions.
• We are required to believe in something that doesn’t exist in order to allow it to come into being. Have faith in experimentation.
• Even spontaneity gets better with patience.
• Actively stretch your own point of view. Try to see beyond your filter. Curiosity doesn’t insist on a single way of doing things. When we are making things we love, our mission is accomplished.
• The artist’s job is the work of doing and the work of being. This is why it is never done.
• Art is far more powerful than our plans for it.

I loved The Creative Art: A Way of Being and I encourage you to read it. I give it an enthusiastic five stars. It will probably be the best thing I read this year and is destined to become a classic.