Josef Albers Quotes

Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.

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.

We will always have more to discover, more to invent, more to understand and that's much closer to art and literature than any science.

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.

I think we always move from imitation to assimilation to innovation, but I can't name you 20 people outside those we've already recognized who ever got to point three: innovation.

The discoveries of science, the works of art are explorations - more, are explosions, of a hidden likeness. The discoverer or artist presents in them two aspects of nature and fuses them into one. This is the act of creation, in which an original thought is born, and it is the same act in original science and original art.

I enjoy creating new ideas, working on new creative projects.

I think that everything is part of creativity - the more you create, the more you have ideas, and the more you meet people.

Because we imagine, we can have invention and technology. It's actually play, not necessity, that is the mother of invention.

I like to start with the ordinary, and then nudge it, and then think, 'What happens next, what happens next?'

As I see it, whoever's doing the inventing is also doing most of the learning - and probably having most of the fun.

You can be creative in anything - in math, science, engineering, philosophy - as much as you can in music or in painting or in dance.

Every great inspiration is but an experiment - though every experiment we know, is not a great inspiration.

Creating something is all about problem-solving.

I write the way you might arrange flowers. Not every try works, but each one launches another. Every constraint, even dullness, frees up a new design.

From stoplights to skyscrapers, turn anywhere in civilization and you will see imagination at work. It's in our inventions, advances and remedies and how a single parent masterminds each day. Imagination is boundless, surrounds us and resides in us all.

I believe in creative work.

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found.

Ideas are cheap. Always be passionate about ideas and communicating those ideas and discoveries to others in the things you make.

Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is.

When I'm making stuff, the thing that excites me most is not the result, but the process and trying to do something I've never done before.

I'm into creating something that I've never created before.

Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure.

Another hero was Tom Swift, in the books. What he stood for, the freedom, the scientific knowledge and being and engineer gave him the ability to invent solutions to problems. He's always been a hero to me. I buy old Tom Swift books now and read them to my own children.

Creativity runs across many categories in life, from the arts-and-crafts project a mum or dad does with their kids, to the bestselling author's manuscript, to the designs of the hairdresser, to the creations of the computer programming genius.