Editing while you're writing is like strangling the baby in the crib.
Interpretation
Editing during the writing process can stifle creativity and hinder the flow of ideas.
Quincy Jones uses a stark metaphor to convey that constantly editing or judging one's writing while in the creative process can be detrimental. It suggests that allowing ideas to flow freely without immediate criticism is essential for the birth of genuine creativity, similar to nurturing a baby rather than stifling it before it has a chance to grow.
In practice
During a writing workshop, a facilitator might say this quote to encourage participants to prioritize free expression over perfection.
Just blow in it and sound bad for about a year and then make it sound a little bit better, and you get a little band together, and then you get a few jobs. You take four guys that sound half bad, but if they're 25 percent each, they can give 100 percent, you know?
Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release.
When you produce an album, you're dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that is that the ear loves it.
You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God.
I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home.
I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because it's not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.
The principle of Creative Limitations calls for freedom within a circle of obstacles and restricted boundaries. Talent is like a muscle: without something to push against, it atrophies. So we deliberately put obstacles in our path - barriers that will inspire us. We disciple ourselves as to what to do, while we're boundless as to how to do it.
Creativity has two possibilities. One is that it arises out of your silence, love, understanding, your clarity of vision, your intimate friendliness with existence - then creativity is healthy. But if it does not arise out of meditation, out of silence and peace and understanding and love, then there is a danger. It may be arising out of your confused mind. It may be arising out of your insanity.
I've known several cases of writers who decide to write about something and they research the hell out of it and when they're ready to write, they can't move because they are so burdened. I start writing. Whatever I need somehow comes to hand.
People who do a job that claims to be creative have to be alone to recharge their batteries. You canβt live 24 hours a day in the spotlight and remain creative. For people like me, solitude is a victory.
Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time... Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value
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