Woody Allen on Creativity
"The problem is, I feel there's so little you can teach, really, and I didn't want to be discouraging to [the students]. Because the truth of the matter is, ou either have it or you don't. If you don't have it, you can study all your life and it won't mean anything. You won't become a better filmmaker for it. And if you do have it, then you will quickly learn to use the few tools you need. Most of what you need, as a director, is psychological help, anyhow. Balance, discipline, things like that. [...] Many talents artists are destroyed by their neuroses, their doubts, and their angst, or they let too many exterior things distract them. That's where the danger lies, and these are the elements that a writer or filmmaker should try to master first.
"[The students asked him how he came up with the ideas in Annie Hall] and all I could asnwer to them was "Well, it was my instinct to do it this way." And that, I think, is the most important lesson I've learned about filmmaking: that for those who can do it, there's no big mystery to it. One should not be intimidated by it or get caught up in thinking it's some kind of mysterious, complex thing to do. Just follow your instinct. And if you have talent, it won't be hard. And if you don't, then it will be impossible."
So what do you all think? Is it this in-born or does creativity come from that 10,000 hour "tipping point" of experience that Gladwell proposes? Nature, in other words, or nurture?
"[The students asked him how he came up with the ideas in Annie Hall] and all I could asnwer to them was "Well, it was my instinct to do it this way." And that, I think, is the most important lesson I've learned about filmmaking: that for those who can do it, there's no big mystery to it. One should not be intimidated by it or get caught up in thinking it's some kind of mysterious, complex thing to do. Just follow your instinct. And if you have talent, it won't be hard. And if you don't, then it will be impossible."
So what do you all think? Is it this in-born or does creativity come from that 10,000 hour "tipping point" of experience that Gladwell proposes? Nature, in other words, or nurture?
Comments
I have felt, for a long time, very strongly, that absolutely everyone has creative urges which, for the health of our souls, need to be expressed.
How skilled that expression is depends on how much time/ effort/ life force the person has put in to developing a particular manner of expression. I do believe that this time and effort can be put in when we are too young to notice, or even before we are born.
I also think that the fact of feeling a yen to do something is a sign that you should consider trying it.