Treat

Ideas
Like
Cats
And Other Creative Quotes
to Inspire Creative People

Zachary Petit
Editor-in-chief of PRINT Magazine

CINCINNATI, OH
Copyright 2016 by F+W Media, Inc.
All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form
without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made
for brief excerpts used in published reviews.
For M., herself a quote.
Published by
And to the brilliant minds quoted throughout this book.
HOW Books, an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.
10151 Carver Road, Suite 200, Blue Ash, OH 45242. U.S.A. Wish I had said it first.
www.howdesign.com

ISBN 10: 1- 4405 -9633- 6

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eISBN 10: 1- 4405 -9634- 4
eISBN 13: 978 -1- 4405 -9634- 6

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10987654321

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. . . HE WRAPPED
HIMSELF IN QUOTATIONS
AS A BEGGAR WOULD
ENFOLD HIMSELF IN THE
PURPLE OF EMPERORS.
RUDYARD KIPLING
Introduction
In my life, I have been a writer, a magazine and book editor,
a photographer, a teenage website developer, a bad graphic
designer, a four-chord musician, and even an aspiring
barista/poet (for eight hours, anyway, until I realized Id
much rather be browsing the shelves of the bookstore that
housed the coffee shop).
As all creatives know, the struggle is real. Committing
acts of creativityno matter the pursuit, no matter the
disciplineis not easy (and can be downright hellish,
depending on the day).
In other words, not all of us have it as good as writer
Ray Bradbury, who cheerfully quipped, I dont need an
alarm clockmy ideas wake me.
Most of us are, perhaps, a bit more in poet Henry
Wadsworth Longfellows campArt is long, and time
is fleetingor maybe even actor Christopher Parkers:
Procrastination is like a credit cardits a lot of fun until
you get the bill.
 Over the years, through creative blocks in between As designer Saul Bass said, Interesting things happen
writing books and thousands of articles, shooting photos when the creative impulse is cultivated with curiosity,
and editing magazine issues, through countless hours freedom and intensity.
staring into the taunting white snow of blank screens, Ive
It is my hope that this book may just help foster the
had a secret weapon to keep me moving forward, plodding
seeds of that intensity.
on, saneand it wasnt a library of self-help books or the
attention of a gaggle of snake-oil-sellin creative healers. Zachary Petit, Cincinnati, 2016
Rather, it was, simply enough, a Word file in which
Icollected (read: hoarded) quotes. A mainline of wisdom
from the creative heroes who have inspired and informed
so many of us.

To me, a good quote is the equivalent of a poem, or

perhaps the occasional sip (read: pint) of good bourbon
apoultice for the creative soul. Such tiny, perfect
revelations.

A good quote can humor. It can engage. It can enrage.

It can inspire. It can motivate, and a simple sentence has
been known to spawn an entire universe entirely of ones
own.

This volume is meant for writers. For designers. For

artists. For architects, poets, journalists, the dreamers,
the believersanyone with the creative urge haunting the
depths of their bones.

Quotes float around the heart of that urge like fireflies,

revealing, in their own way, a mosaic of what it means to
be a creative, what it means to share a universal calling
and gift that so many of us will not (and cannot) turn our
backson.
 The real giants have
always been poets,
men who jumped from
facts into the realm of
imagination and ideas.

BILL BERNBACH
WHATEVER YOURE MEANT ONLY HE WHO ATTEMPTS
TO DO, DO IT NOW. THE THE ABSURD IS CAPABLE
CONDITIONS ARE ALWAYS OF ACHIEVING THE
IMPOSSIBLE. IMPOSSIBLE.

DORIS LESSING MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO

If I am not mistaken,
the words art and
artist did not exist
during the Renaissance
and before: there were I FIND OUT WHAT THE
simply architects, WORLD NEEDS. THEN I
GO AHEAD AND TRY TO
sculptors, and painters,
INVENT IT.
practicing a trade.
THOMAS EDISON
M.C. ESCHER
 DO NOT HOARD WHAT
SEEMS GOOD FOR A LATER
PLACE IN THE BOOK,
KEEP A SMALL CAN
ORFOR ANOTHER BOOK;
OF WD-40 ON YOUR
GIVE IT,
DESKAWAY FROM
GIVE IT ALL,
ANY OPEN FLAMES
GIVE IT NOW.
TO REMIND YOURSELF
THAT IF YOU DONT ANNIE DILLARD
WRITE DAILY, YOU
WILL GET RUSTY.

GEORGE SINGLETON
 Dont waste
EVERYONE HAS TALENT. time learning
WHAT IS RARE IS THE the tricks of
COURAGE TO FOLLOW THE the trade.
TALENT TO THE DARK PLACES
WHERE IT LEADS.
Instead,
learn the trade.
H. JACKSON BROWN, JR.
ERICA JONG
 We have art
in order not
Creativity is the
worlds greatest
to die of
weapon. It always wins. the truth.
MIMI VALDES FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The first stepespecially
for young people with energy
and drive and talent, but
not moneythe first step
INTERESTING THINGS
to controlling your world is
HAPPEN WHEN THE
to control your culture. To
CREATIVE IMPULSE
model and demonstrate the
IS CULTIVATED WITH
kind of world you demand to
CURIOSITY, FREEDOM,
live in. To write the books.
AND INTENSITY.
Make the music. Shoot the
films. Paint the art. SAUL BASS

CHUCK PALAHNIUK
WHEN I WAS A CHILD, ADULTS
WOULD TELL ME NOT TO MAKE
I didnt really know how
THINGS UP, WARNING ME OF
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF I DID. Iwas going to make money
AS FAR AS I CAN TELL SO
FAR IT SEEMS TO INVOLVE
creating art, but I knew
LOTS OF FOREIGN TRAVEL Iwas going to make it.
AND NOT HAVING TO GET UP
TOO EARLY IN THE MORNING.

NEIL GAIMAN
JESSICA HISCHE
 SOME MEN ARE BORN
MEDIOCRE, SOME MEN
ACHIEVE MEDIOCRITY, AND
SOME ARE BORN GREAT, SOME
SOME MEN HAVE MEDIOCRITY
ACHIEVE GREATNESS, AND
THRUST UPON THEM.
SOME HAVE GREATNESS THRUST
UPON EM. JOSEPH HELLER

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
I saw that
my life was a
vast glowing
empty page GENIUS IS ONLY A
and I could GREATER APTITUDE
do anything TO PATIENCE.
I wanted.
GEORGES-LOUIS LECLERC,
JACK KEROUAC COMTE DE BUFFON
IDEAS ARE LIKE RABBITS.
YOU GET A COUPLE AND Be willing
LEARN HOW TO HANDLE THEM,
AND PRETTY SOON YOU HAVE
to get fired
A DOZEN. for a good
JOHN STEINBECK idea.
SPIKE JONZE
Thats the
great secret
DONT WORRY ABOUT PEOPLE
of creativity. STEALING YOUR IDEAS. IF
You treat ideas YOUR IDEAS ARE ANY GOOD,
YOULL HAVE TO RAM THEM
like cats: DOWN PEOPLES THROATS.
You make them HOWARD H. AIKEN

follow you.
RAY BRADBURY

BUT THE TRUTH IS, ITS NOT THE
IDEA, ITS NEVER THE IDEA, ITS
ALWAYS WHAT YOU DO WITH IT.
NEIL GAIMAN
ART IS A SORT OF
EXPERIMENTAL STATION IN
WHICH ONE TRIES OUT LIVING.
JOHN CAGE
 The things that made I CAN ALWAYS BE DISTRACTED
you weird as a kid make BY LOVE, BUT EVENTUALLY I GET

you great as an adult HORNY FOR MY CREATIVITY.

but only if you pay

attention to them.

GILDA RADNER
JAMES VICTORE
THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN THE ALMOST
If you do it right,
RIGHT WORD AND THE it will last
RIGHT WORD IS REALLY
A LARGE MATTER
TIS THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN THE LIGHTNING-
BUG AND THE LIGHTNING. forever.
MARK TWAIN

MASSIMO VIGNELLI
 IMITATION CAN BE COMMERCIAL SUICIDE.

BILL BERNBACH
IT IS BETTER TO FAIL
IN ORIGINALITY THAN TO
SUCCEED IN IMITATION.

HERMAN MELVILLE