Craft & work

What do you do when you feel creatively blocked or stuck?

82 answers answered between 1932 and 2026 one of 4 from The Creative Independent

Originally asked

The Creative Independent, to working artists, its interview series

A recurring Creative Independent question whose wording distinguishes a lasting block from a temporary impasse.

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Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 4 Arts and letters 70 Politics and public life 2 Business and finance 1 Technology 3 Sport 2
Read by age Any age In their thirties 8 In their forties 4 In their fifties 4 In their sixties 6
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Richard Feynman Theoretical physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 1965
Nothing happens because there’s not enough real activity and challenge: You’re not in contact with the experimental guys.  You don’t have to think how to answer questions from the students.  Nothing!
Recorded Excerpt from “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman”, Engineering and Science / Caltech Magazine, 1985 source ↗
Ahmed Zewail Chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1999
I am not one of the new media experts working all the time with my computers and the PowerPoint’s and things of that sort. So, I’m an old fashioned still in this regard but these are the moment where I really can be creative, if I am, to be left alone with just a book and piece of paper and to be thinking.
Recorded Sture Forsén and David Dishart, Nobel Prize interview, NobelPrize.org, 12 December 1999 source ↗
Emily Fischer US atmospheric chemist and academic
It sounds kind of jerky, but I feel like I suffer from an abundance of ideas, and the hardest part for me has always been editing and slowing down. Sometimes I just have to empty out that imaginary mental junk drawer. I literally have this mental image that I use sometimes where I’m just shaking out the junk drawer and throwing stuff away. Mental clutter is something that I have a problem with. At times, people in the studio will roll their eyes because I’ll be like, “Hey guys, look at this. I made this and it could be this color and we could do this or this!” Everyone’s like, “Calm down, Emily.”
Recorded Brandon Stosuy, The Creative Independent interview source ↗
Ada Yonath Structural biologist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 2009
I look for how to get out of it. I try to use here [points to her head]. I tried to read, I tried to talk to others. I tried my best to get out of it. I had lots of times climbing one Everest to find that there is a bigger Everest, but don’t you find your life like this too?
Recorded Lorena Guzman, Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings source ↗

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