Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

Our creative work is not the result of some external force that arrives to inspire and assist us, but of some miraculous opening within ourselves that allows our own vision and beauty to shine forth.

Creativity is like a water table under the earth. It's not limited to writing or to painting; it's everywhere. It's a life force: you tap it with energy and effort, and it wells up through you. No matter what you do, the first step to tapping creativity is showing up.

We want to create an atmosphere in which creation is possible.

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

"If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud. Any of us will put out more and better ideas if our efforts are appreciated.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

I'd say it's been my biggest problem all my life... it's money.
It takes a lot of money to make these dreams come true.

An unfulfilled vocation drains the colour from a person's entire existence.

I never feel age...if you have creative work, you don't have age or time.

When you are inspired by some great purpose some extraordinary project all your thoughts break their bonds, your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession.

Be fanatics. When it comes to being, doing, and dreaming the best, be maniacs.

I am not influenced by the techniques or fashions of any other motion picture company.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting.

I couldn't wait for success...so I went ahead without it.

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down.

Don't wait for a light to appear at the end of the tunnel, stride down there and light the bloody thing yourself.

Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.

There are two ways to fail in the movie business. One is by poor performance, the other is by great performance. I think the more threatening of the two is success.

Good dialogue is not real speech--it's the illusion of real speech.

Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.

Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.

Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some, and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is ultimately to be at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be.

It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;
who errs and comes short again and again;
who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
DARING GREATLY
so that his place shall never be
with those timid souls
who know neither victory or defeat.

Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.

Before me lies the edge of the world. I am on my way there running.