Components for Creativity

In 1986, while living in Zaire, I made my first quotation calendar as a gift for my wife. Browsing through an old copy of The Shorter Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, I found so many irresistible gems that I became hooked on quotes, especially quotes about creativity. Since then, I have collected more than 10,000 Creative Quotations and developed an indexing system based on five components of creativity. I personalized this system as FRANK's Components for Creativity. (See Create Your own Creativity Acronym for hints on creating your own personalize acronym). These five components are summarized in the following table:

Foraging is gathering information	Reflecting is generating lots of ideas	Adopting is selecting an idea	Nurturing is improving your idea	Knuckling Down is never giving up

*Man must go back to nature for information.* -Thomas Paine	I dream for a living. -Steven Spielburg	*I invent nothing. I rediscover.* -Auguste Rodin	*There is a right physical size for every idea.* -Henry Moore	*A thick skin is a gift from God.* -Adenauer Konrad

Foraging is collecting information

Foraging is . . .

being on the outlook and exploring your environment for new ideas;
seeking inspiration through nature;
getting an education,
developing your abilities and talents.

Here are some quotes which illustrate the spirit of Foraging . . .

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. --A.A. Milne

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught. -Oscar Wilde

It takes little talent to see what is under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in what direction to point that organ. -W.H. Auden

Creative minds always have been known to survive any kind of bad training. -Anna Freud

Anyone can look for history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store. - Robert Wieder

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Reflecting is generating lots of ideas

Reflecting is . . .

questioning the information which you have collected;
using your imagination;
thinking, pondering, and daydreaming;
brainstorming and "what-if-ing."

Some good examples of Reflecting quotes are:

Imagination rules the world. -Napoleon Bonaparte

There is a correlation between the creative and the screwball. So we must suffer the screwball gladly.-Kingman Brewster

It may be that those who do most, dream most. Stephen Leacock

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. -Friedrich Neitzsche

Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different. -Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

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Adopting is embracing an idea

Adopting means . . .

selecting among your generated ideas;
making decisions;
borrowing ideas from others;
inventing and innovating.

Some Adopting quotes which I particularly like are:

It is the function of creative man to perceive and to connect the seemingly unconnected. -William Plommer

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate. -Francois Rene Chateaubriand

Inventions that are not made, like babies that are not born, are not missed. - John Kenneth Galbraith

Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful. -Niccolo Machiavelli

I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping and composition of themes to settle themselves in my brain. When I felt I held enough cards I determined to pass to action, and did so. -Claude Monet

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Nurturing is improving your idea

Nurturing requires . . .

objectively evaluating an idea and rejecting what doesn't work;
simplifying the over-complicated;
lots of hard work;
failing and trying again (over and over again).

Some good Nurturing quotes are:

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. -Charles Mingus

Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all. -Charles Babbage

Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams. - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation. -Saki (H. H. Munro)

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Knuckling Down is never giving up

Knuckling Down means . . .

marketing your idea;
dealing with critics;
maturing with courage and patience; and
surviving success.

Some particularly fine quotes about Knuckling Down are:

Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. -Dale Carnegie

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. -Bill Cosby

God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars. -Elbert Hubbard

Eighty percent of success is showing up. -Woody Allen

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