Motivational quotes to the rescue! Are you looking for a super quotable burst of inspiration? Are you ready for a little push in the right direction?

Or maybe you’re working on your latest creative projectβ€”a poem, a book, a sculpture, a paintingβ€”only to realize it’s not turning out the way you wanted.

Have no fear, I’ve got a quote for any and all of that! πŸ‘©πŸ»β€πŸŽ¨

The Beauty of a Much-Needed Inspirational Quote

Quotes are a great way to give yourself small reminders and occasional bursts of encouragement, especially if you’re feeling hopeless or discouraged, faced with anxiety, grappling with fear of failure (or fear of success), or dealing with the dreaded writerΚ»s block or artistΚ»s block.

A piece of advice: If that’s happening to you, put the project aside and take a step back. You might be tempted to throw in the towel, but donΚ»t. Stay the course. If you decide to let a project go, let it be because you have thoughtfully accepted that itΚ»s not the right time or place for the project, and not because youΚ»re discouraged and frustrated.

Creative blocks happen, and everyone who has successfully sold a painting or published a book will tell you that creative ruts are part of the process. It’s just a matter of getting those creative juices flowing again.

Reclaim Inspiration

Rather than wait for inspiration, nudge it back into your corner with a little bit of hard work and a lot of persistence.

We all know that surrounding ourselves with people who lift us up and inspire us can help us reach our creative goals faster. The works and words of great artists and writers can help us overcome these same hurdles. A well-chosen word or phrase can motivate us, ignite passion, and rekindle our creative souls.

In that spirit, I’ve rounded up a collection of over 200 inspirational quotes from famous artists, creators, businesspeople, and world leaders to help keep you motivated. Write these quotes down and put them in your journal, on your bathroom mirror, on the door to the fridge, in your car. Send them to a friend. These bite-sized creative boosts are here for you whenever you feel the chips are down.

200+ Inspirational Quotes for Art and Writing

  1. β€œPainting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see.” β€”Philip Guston
  2. β€œThey always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” β€”Andy Warhol
  3. β€œTo create one’s own world takes courage.” β€”Georgia O’Keeffe
  4. “Creativity exists in the present moment. You can’t find it anywhere else.” β€”Natalie Goldberg
  5. β€œPoor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.” β€”Leonardo da Vinci
  6. β€œThe chief enemy of creativity is β€˜good’ sense.” β€”Pablo Picasso
  7. β€œLearn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” β€”Pablo Picasso
  8. β€œStay firmly in your path and dare. Be wild two hours a day!”  β€”Paul Gauguin
  9. β€œInspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get the work done. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you’re not going to make an awful lot of work. ” β€”Chuck Close
  10. β€œA true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.β€œ ―Salvador Dali
  11. β€œSuccess is a worn down pencil.” β€”Rauschenberg
  12. β€œBe willing to be a beginner every single morning.” β€”Meister Johann Eckhart
  13. β€œWhen one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” β€”Thomas Stearns Eliot
  14. β€œOnly those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” β€”Thomas Stearns Eliot
  15. β€œThe most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” β€”Amelia Earhart
  16. β€œIt is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” β€”J. K. Rowling
  17. “I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” β€”EstΓ©e Lauder 
  18. β€œIf you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.” β€”Edward Hopper
  19. “Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.” ―Leonardo da Vinci
  20. β€œThe ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”  β€”Hans Hofmann
  21. β€œLife beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” β€”Stella Adler
  22. β€œHappiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” β€”Mahatma Gandhi
  23. β€œThere is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” β€”Aristotle
  24. β€œNo chaos, damn it.” β€”Jackson Pollock
  25. “Hope begins in the dark.” β€”Anne Lamott
  26. β€œSuccess is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” β€”Bill Gates
  27. β€œThe way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” β€”Walt Disney
  28. β€œShort cuts make long delays.” β€•J.R.R. Tolkien
  29. β€œYou’ll never really be great unless you aim high.” ―Stella Adler
  30. β€œArt is a lie that makes us realize the truth.” ―Pablo Picasso
  31. β€œA wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” ―Francis Bacon
  32. β€œBy failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” β€”Benjamin Franklin
  33. β€œI attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.” ―Florence Nightingale 
  34. β€œMan prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.” ―Francis Bacon
  35. β€œIf we go for the easy way, we never change.” ―Marina Abramovic
  36. β€œYou get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare.” β€”Georgia O’Keeffe
  37. β€œImagination is more important than knowledge.” ―Albert Einstein
  38. “You’re a creative person. So come up with a creative solution.” ―Darien Gee
  39. β€œIf people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” β€”Michelangelo
  40. β€œThe worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ―Sylvia Plath
  41. β€œThere is no β€˜right’ way to make art. The only wrong is in not trying, not doing. Don’t put barriers up that aren’t there β€” just get to work and make something.” β€”Lisa Golightly 
  42. β€œYou can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” β€”Maya Angelou
  43. β€œRoutine kills creative thought.” β€”Scarlett Thomas
  44. “Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. β€œ ―Stella Adler
  45. β€œWhat keeps my heart awake is colorful silence.” ―Claude Monet 
  46. β€œArt is the only way to run away without leaving home.” ―Twyla Tharp
  47. β€œCreativity is intelligence having fun.” ―Albert Einstein
  48. β€œThe world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.” ―Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  49. β€œLogic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” ―Albert Einstein
  50. β€œHave no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” ―Salvador Dali
  51. β€œThe longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.” ―Lucian Freud
  52. β€œAn artist never really finishes his work; he merely abandons it.” β€•Paul ValΓ©ry
  53. β€œOne can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” ―Leonardo da Vinci
  54. β€œThe artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” ―Paul Strand
  55. β€œIt’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ―Henry David Thoreau
  56. β€œIt took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” ―Pablo Picasso
  57. β€œI wish they would only take me as I am.” ―Vincent Van Gogh
  58. β€œTo practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” ―Kurt Vonnegut
  59. β€œDo not fear mistakes ― there are none.” ―Miles David
  60. β€œI invent nothing, I rediscover.” ―Auguste Rodin
  61. β€œEvery canvas is a journey all its own.” ―Helen Frankenthaler
  62. β€œIf you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.” ―Émile Zola
  63. β€œThe object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.” ―Alberto Giacometti
  64. β€œArt enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ―Thomas Merton
  65. β€œWe don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.” β€”Bob Ross
  66. β€œThose who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” ―Salvador Dali
  67. β€œThe greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” ―Robert Hughes
  68. β€œBe who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” ―Dr. Seuss
  69. β€œEverything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.” ―Andy Warhol
  70. β€œArt is a line around your thoughts.” ―Gustav Klimt
  71. β€œWhile drawing, I discover what I really want to say. β€œ ―Dario Fo 
  72. “I think that little by little I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive.” ―Frida Kahlo
  73. β€œAt the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”  β€•Frida Kahlo
  74. β€œI paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.” ―Frida Kahlo
  75. “Don’t put yourself down. Be kind. Trust your words. Trust your desire to write.” ―Darien Gee
  76. β€œNo amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.” ―Edward Hopper  
  77. β€œMore of me comes out when I improvise.” ―Edward Hopper 
  78. β€œI have tried to present my sensations in what is the most congenial and impressive form possible to me.” ―Edward Hopper  
  79. β€œIf I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” ―Marc Chagall 
  80. β€œLove and fantasy, go hand in hand.” ―Marc Chagall 
  81. β€œWhat a genius, that Picasso. It is a pity he doesn’t paint.”  ―Marc Chagall 
  82. β€œTo look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage.” ―Henri Matisse 
  83. β€œDon’t wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.” ―Henri Matisse
  84. β€œExactitude is not truth.” ―Henri Matisse 
  85. β€œImpressionism is the newspaper of the soul” ―Henri Matisse
  86. β€œWhen you’re out of willpower, you can call on stubbornness.”  ―Henri Matisse
  87. “One just has to shut up, sit down, and write.” ―Natalie Goldberg
  88. “Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly.” ―Salvador Dali
  89. “I am not strange. I am just not normal.” ―Salvador Dali
  90. “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” ―Salvador Dali
  91. “Life is too short to remain unnoticed.” ―Salvador Dali
  92. “The problem with the youth of today is that one is no longer part of it.” ―Salvador Dali
  93. “You have to create confusion systematically, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life.” ―Salvador Dali
  94. “No masterpiece was ever created by a lazy artist.” ―Salvador Dali
  95. “The true painter must be able, with the most usual things, to have the most unusual ideas.” ―Salvador Dali
  96. β€œYou need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.” ―Andy Warhol
  97. β€œPatience is also a form of action.” ―Auguste Rodin 
  98. β€œEverything I do is intended to be big.” ―Henry Moore
  99. β€œYour time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” ―Steve Jobs
  100. β€œDon’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” ―Steve Jobs
  101. β€œSometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” ―Steve Jobs
  102. β€œYou have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.” ―Steve Jobs
  103. β€œFairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ―Neil Gaiman
  104. β€œBecause,’ she said, ‘when you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave.” ―Neil Gaiman
  105. “Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or cannot write, who you can or cannot be.” ―Darien Gee
  106. β€œNature is not only all that is visible to the eye… it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.” ―Edvard Munch
  107. β€œTruth is like fire; to tell the truth means to glow and burn.” ―Gustav Klimt
  108. β€œI would rather die of passion than of boredom.” ―Émile Zola
  109. β€œThe artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” ―Émile Zola
  110. β€œThe artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.”  ―Wassily Kandinsky
  111. β€œCreativity is magic. Don’t examine it too closely.” ―Edward Albee
  112. β€œThe chief enemy of creativity is β€˜good’ sense.” ―Pablo Picasso
  113. β€œEvery artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” ―Henry Ward Beecher
  114. β€œThe object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” ―Robert Henri
  115. β€œGreat things are done by a series of small things brought together.” ―Vincent Van Gogh
  116. β€œLife beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” ―Stella Adler
  117. β€œNo great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.” ―Oscar Wilde
  118. β€œA good artist has less time than ideas.” ―Martin Kippenberger
  119. β€œIf I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” ―Marc Chagall
  120. β€œArt must be an expression of love or it is nothing.” ―Marc Chagall
  121. β€œIn art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.” ―Ralph Waldo Emerson
  122. β€œWhether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.” ―Georgia O’Keeffe
  123. “Great art picks up where nature ends.” ―Marc Chagall
  124. β€œI think of art as the highest level of creativity. To me, it is one of the greatest sources of enjoyment.” ―David Rockefeller
  125. “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ―Thomas Merton
  126. β€œCreativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” ―Scott Adams
  127. β€œYou see things; and you say, β€˜Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, β€˜Why not’?” ―George Bernard Shaw
  128. β€œCreativity is a drug I cannot live without.” ―Cecil B. DeMille
  129. “No one can write the book that you are going to write. It’s as simple as that.” ―Darien Gee
  130. β€œOriginality is nothing but judicious imitation.” ―Voltaire
  131. β€œImagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.” ―George Bernard Shaw
  132. β€œYou can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” ―Jack London
  133. β€œCreativity is contagious, pass it on.” ―Albert Einstein
  134. β€œArt washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”―Pablo Picasso
  135. β€œColor is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” ―Claude Monet
  136. β€œDon’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art. ” ―Andy Warhol
  137. β€œCreativity is nothing but a mind set free.” β€”Torrie T. Asai
  138. β€œCreativity comes from a conflict of ideas.” β€•Donatella Versace
  139. β€œCreativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.” ―William Plomer
  140. β€œDon’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” ―Ray Bradbury
  141. β€œThe artist has one function ― to affirm and glorify life.” ―W. Edward Brow
  142. β€œEvery artist was first an amateur.” ―Ralph Waldo Emerson
  143. β€œNo artist is ahead of his time. He is his time, it’s just that others are behind the times.” ―Martha Graham
  144. β€œThe Achilles heel of an artist lies in the hope that his art is good.” ―Kapil Gupta
  145. β€œThe artist is not a different kind of person, but every person is a different kind of artist.” ―Eric Gill
  146. β€œArt, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.” ―Stephen Sondheim
  147. β€œCulture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.” ―Thomas Wolfe
  148. β€œThe aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” ―Aristotle
  149. β€œYou have a million excuses. Write anyway.” ―Carrie Kei Heim
  150. β€œGreat design is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” ― De Saint Exupery
  151. β€œIt’s so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas.” ―Paul Cezanne
  152. β€œPractice what you know and it will help you to make clear what you do not know.” ―Rembrandt
  153. β€œA picture is a poem without words.” ―Horace
  154. β€œA true masterpiece does not tell everything.” ―Albert Camus
  155. β€œCuriosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” ―Leo Burnett
  156. β€œIdeas come from everything.” ―Alfred Hitchcock
  157. β€œDon’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” ―Rumi
  158. β€œEvery child has the spirit of creation. The rubbish of life often exterminates the spirit through plague and a soul’s own wretchedness.” ―Peter Paul Rubens
  159. β€œEvery new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.” ―Austin Kleon
  160. β€œI am an artwork in constant progress; I am my own canvas, my own colors, my own brushes, and my own inspiration.” ―Efrat Cybulkiewicz
  161. β€œI don’t want to be interesting. I want to be good.” ―Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
  162. β€œI go to seek a great perhaps.” ―John Green
  163. β€œI have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.” ―Georgia O’Keeffe
  164. β€œIdeas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” ―John Steinbeck
  165. β€œIt is only when we are no longer fearful that we begin to create.” ―J. M. W. Turner
  166. β€œThe moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you’re an artist.” ―David Hockney
  167. β€œArt deteriorates when it is done for the audience.” ―James Pierce
  168. β€œThe great artist is the simplifier.” ―Vincent van Gogh
  169. β€œThe only thing I know is that I paint because I need to.” ―Frida Kahlo
  170. β€œNever worry about being obsessive. I like obsessive people. Obsessive people make great art.” ―Susan Sontag
  171. β€œIn any art you’re allowed to steal anything if you can make it better.” ―Ernest Hemingway
  172. β€œArt is meant to disturb, science reassures.” ―Georges Braque
  173. β€œA work is finished when an artist realizes his intentions.” ―Rembrandt
  174. β€œOnly when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.” ―Edgar Degas
  175. β€œArt is the expression of the profoundest thoughts in the simplest way.” ―Albert Einstein
  176. β€œArt is to look at not to criticize.” ―Edgar Allen Poe
  177. β€œI shut my eyes in order to see.” ―Paul Gauguin
  178. β€œArt is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” ―Oscar Wilde 
  179. β€œControversy is part of the nature of art and creativity.” ―Yoko Ono
  180. β€œI am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.” ―Vincent van Gogh
  181. β€œIt is absurd to look for perfection.” ―Camille Pissarro
  182. β€œTo create, one must first question everything.” ―Eileen Gray
  183. β€œThe most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” ―Steven Pressfield
  184. β€œThe only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” ―Steve Jobs
  185. β€œIt’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.” ―Claude Monet
  186. β€œOne must spoil as many canvases as one succeeds with.” ―Vincent van Gogh
  187. β€œNot everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.” ―Peter O’Toole
  188. β€œThe greatest respect an artist can pay to music is to give it life.” ―Pablo Casals
  189. β€œThere are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books.” ―Charlie Chaplin
  190. β€œArt is not what you see, but what you see through.” ―Joe Koolish
  191. β€œArt is never finished; it is only abandoned.” ―Jean Cocteau
  192. β€œIt is by doing, doing, doing, and by trying, trying, trying that we seem to acquire wisdom.” ―George Bernard Shaw
  193. β€œArt is not a mirror; it is a hammer. It is not a portrait; it is a protest.” ―Andre Malraux
  194. β€œArt is the personal use of the universal.” ―Grace Lee Boggs
  195. β€œThe artist must know, must see with his mind’s eye, must feel with his heart and then translate into his own unique language and style.” ―Leonard Cohen
  196. β€œArt has no purpose other than itself. It is better for being impractical, inefficient, and unnecessary. Its very existence is its most beautiful and worthwhile feature.” ―Donna Haraway
  197. “Art is not a thing, it is a way.” ―Elbert Hubbard
  198. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” β€”Theodore Roosevelt
  199. “Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure.” β€”Alfred North Whitehead
  200. “Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.” β€”Simonides
  201. “Art does not reflect what is seen, rather it makes the hidden visible.” β€”Paul Klee
  202. “The artist has a special task and duty: the task of reminding men of their humanity and the promise of their creativity.” β€”Lewis Mumford
  203. “Draw the art you want to see.” β€”Austin Kleon
  204. “If you draw, the world becomes more beautiful, far more beautiful.” β€”E.O. Plauen
  205. “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” β€”Joseph Chilton Pearce
  206. “The things you are passionate about are not random, they are your calling.” ―Fabienne Frederickson
  207. “Talent is good. Practice is better. Passion is best.” ―Frank Lloyd Wright

The Creative Journey

I’ve learned a lot over the years as an author who has had small advances and big advances, awards and no awards, good reviews and bad reviews. I have had my ups and downs, sometimes letting months pass before I am able to do my work again. Getting in a creative rut is hard, because at some point you have to get out, and the longer you’ve been in it, the harder it is. Consider these quotes small nudges to get you where you want to go, to get you back on the path of your creative journey.

One thing I know for sure is that nothing is permanent, and neither is your creative block. I hope these quotes ignite your imagination and help you remember who you are as an artist, writer, creator. Choose your favorites and turn to these quotes whenever you need some motivation. 

Do not allow a creative stumbling block to derail your progress or dampen your spirits. DonΚ»t give up and continue creating (if you need a push, try one of these prompts). If you do best with daily reminders, check out this calendar. When you show up for the blank page or canvas, inspiration will find its way back to you.

"Another word for creativity is courage." -Henri Matisse Click To Tweet

You got this. Now go out there and create something great!

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