“Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it ‘creative observation.’ Creative viewing.”

I project myself out through the glasses and across the street, a ghost in the morning sunlight, torn with disembodied lust.

The simplest questions are the most difficult.

I think anybody incapable of changing his mind is crazy.

After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it.

I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it.

Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.

I’m creating an imaginary — it’s always imaginary — world in which I would like to live.

What a horrible loutish planet this is. the dominant species consists of sadistic morons, faces bearing the hideous lineaments of spiritual famine swollen with stupid hate. Hopeless rubbish.

As soon as you know you are in prison, you have a possibility to escape.

Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective.

A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.

There are no innocent bystanders, What are they doing there in the first place?

If, after spending time with a person, you feel as though you’ve lost a quart of plasma, avoid that person in the future.

You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.

The world is now a virus.

Paranoia is just having the right information.

Every creative act draws on the past whether it pretends to or not. It draws on what it knows. There’s no such thing, really, as a creative act in a vacuum.

Proximity to the crowd, to the majority view, spells the death of creativity. For a soul can create only when alone, and some are chosen for the flowering that takes place in the dark avenues of night.

Creative thinking – in terms of idea creativity – is not a mystical talent. It is a skill that can be practised and nurtured.

Creativity can be learned like basketball, which does not mean we will all be NBA stars.

Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone.

As competition intensifies, the need for creative thinking increases. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better . . . no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems.

Man owes his success to his creativity. No one doubts the need for it. It is most useful in good times and essential in bad.

Creativity is a great motivator because it mades people interested in what they are doing.