Harold Pinter

"Whatever the next thing is I write, it's got to be even more naked than the last."

— Harold Pinter

English Playwright

1930 - 2008

How vulnerable are you in your writing?  Can people discover who you are through your art?  How naked are you?  Do you open yourself up and share?  Or are you hidden and unknowable?  Creativity demands that we be true to ourselves.  That we share ourselves with others.  That we make ourselves vulnerable to the biting criticism of critics.  That we give and give and expect nothing in return.

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Wilson Mizner

"I respect faith but doubt is what gets you an education."

— Wilson Mizner

American Playwright

1876 - 1933

I am a doubting Thomas.  Faith does not come easy for me.  I question almost everything.  Yet I feel my doubts have made a better and stronger person.  Others might not agree, but then they can not look inside my heart.  As creative leaders, I believe it is part of our role in society to question and not to take everything at face value.  I think that the more we are able to question the better our art will be.

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Eugene Ionesco

"I am writing the memoirs of a man who has lost his memory."

— Eugene Ionesco

Romanian/French Playwright

1909 - 1994

If you had no memory, what would your life be like?  Memory is a crucial part of who we are as human beings.  Without memory we probably would not have writing or painting.  Memory helps us create both the past and the future.  Without memory we would not have stories or even history.  Yet for some of us as we grow old our memories begin to fade.  First, we lose that important short-term memory.  Even a trip from the bedroom to the kitchen is full of doubt and question.  The the long-term memory develops holes.  We lose a part of who we were.  Cherish your memories.  Put them down on paper.  Incorporate them into your paintings.  We need our memories in order to function.  We need our memories in order to create.

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Richard B. Sheridan

"Won't you come into the garden?  I would like my roses to see you."

— Richard B. Sheridan

Irish Poet, Playwright

1751 - 1816

I have spent the weekend helping my wife transform our yard into several gardens.  This is not a normal pastime for us.  What gardens we have our daughter created a few years ago.  We have a large yard (.9 acre) with lots of trees.  I would prefer to live in the woods with no grass.  We almost bought a house in the woods in Indiana 27 years ago but it was too small.  We want gardens that require very little maintenance. 

As artists and creative leaders we are all in a sense gardeners.  We plant the seeds of our hopes and dreams in our writings and paintings.  We are tilling the soil of our hearts, looking for answers to our questions.  We must pull the weeds out of our writing and our painting.  We must fertilize the creative soil.  And when we are done, we can share the beauty of our creation with others.  So this week, be sure to tend the gardens of your creation.

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Soren Kierkegaard

"Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards."

— Soren Kierkegaard

Danish Writer, Philosopher

1813 - 1855

Do you understand who you are and from where you have come?  Only in looking back at our lives can we begin to have inkling of who we are as we begin to connect the dots in our lives — as we begin to tell the stories of what has happened to us.  Some of the dots in my life begin with my loud voice.  As a child, I was asked to participate in church programs because I had a booming voice.  When I was a sophomore in high school I decided to become a preacher.  I have spent the last 25 years of my life as a motivational speaker.  Three dots that when I look back at my life begin to tell the story of who I was and who I became.  And there are other dots that connect me to my father and the father that I became.  And dots that point to my perception of myself as an outsider, an underdog.  What are the dots in your life that you are beginning to connect and therefore to understand?  What are the stories you are telling yourself but nobody else?  What are the stories that you are sharing with the world?

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Ernst Bacon

"A teacher's hardest lesson is to limit his explanation to the minimum."

— Ernst Bacon

American Composer, Pianist, Conductor

1898 - 1990

Sometimes less is more.  For creative leaders this is a valuable lesson.  Writers often put too much into their works.  Sometimes what is not said is more important than what is said.  Too much explanation can destroy the novel.  We need to learn to leave out the kitchen sink.  The same is true for painters.  What is left out of the picture is more important sometimes than what is included.  Photographers understand this.  What can we take away from this photo to make it even stronger?  Remember less is more.  What sentences or paragraphs can be left out of the story?

Here is a short piano piece by Ernst Bacon.

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Pat Conroy

"Without music, life is a journey through a desert."

— Pat Conroy

American Novelist

1945 -

What is your favorite music?  Do you listen to various genres of music depending on your mood or the time of the day?  What impact does music have on your creativity?  Does music speak to your heart and spirit?  Do you listen to music when you read a book?  Do you prefer to dance to music?  What is your favorite song?  Who is your favorite musician?  What would your life be like if you could not hear music?

Let's make music together?  Can you play an instrument?  Can you sing? Or can you dance?  Do you sing in the shower?  Or do you sing along with the radio while driving a car?

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