Actually, yes, you can be creative anytime. On demand.

…It’s just that some of that creativity will be the quality level of sewage. You know, crap.

But that’s okay, because there’s no prerequisite for creativity that says “every creative thought you have must be stellar quality.”

You’ve heard all the quotes about failure being the road to success and so on, right? Oh, what’s that, you thought those didn’t apply to you and your creative genius?

Well. They do.

Here are a few to get your noggin round the idea. Read ‘em and weep. Oh wait, before you read ‘em, remember that the word failure is another way of saying “creativity of the crappiest quality” and success is another way of saying “the genius creativity of which I know I am capable.” But both are part of being creative, so both are good. And by producing more failures, you’re going to produce more successes.

Got it? Okay. Read on.

Be patient. …Accept failure as part of your destiny.

-Richard Bausch

We must accept our mistakes. If we don’t, we’re lost, don’t you think? -Octavio Paz

When you go for something, don’t come back until you get it. -William Clement Stone

Men of great faith have always called us to wake up to great expectations, and the prudent have always laughed at them and said that these did not belong to reality. But the poet in man knows that reality is a creation, and human reality has to be called forth from its obscure depth by man’s faith which is creative. -Rabindranath Tagore

I don’t think there are beginnings and destinations so much as circles which end by closing and starting over again. -Wallace Stegner

As artists, we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them – to restock the trout pond, so to speak. -Julia Cameron

Every tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

-Samuel Beckett

Parents seldom respond, ‘Try it and see what happens,’ to artistic urges issuing from their offspring. They offer cautionary advice where support might be more to the point. -Julia Cameron

If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sure sign that you’re not trying anything very innovative. -Woody Allen

Success is never found. Failure is never fatal. Courage is the only thing.

-Winston Churchill

Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. -Winston Churchill

The biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work. -Charles F. Kettering

Failure is not the enemy, but a life-changing experience. It is a human experience, and it prepares the way for us to grow and transform our lives. —Sobonfu Somé

Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.

—Robert Louis Stevenson

It is only through failure and through experiment that we learn and grow. —Isaac Stern

Never accept no at face value. Let rejection motivate you to get more creative.

-Steve Chandler

And yet, only challenge causes growth. Only challenge will test our skills and make us better. Only challenge and the self-motivation to engage the challenge will transform us. Every challenge we face is an opportunity to create a more skillful self. So it is up to you to constantly look for challenges to motivate yourself with. And it’s up to you to notice when you’re buried alive in a comfort zone. -Steve Chandler

*Image of the open road by Gianluigi Galbuiti, shared on Stock.Xchng.