Another word for creativity is courage.

To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage.
Henri Matisse

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse (1992). “Jazz”, George Braziller

He who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.174, Univ of California Press

A certain blue enters your soul. A certain red has an effect on your blood-pressure.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.211, Univ of California Press

Colours have their own distinctive beauty that you have to preserve, just as in music you try to preserve sounds. It is a question of organization, of finding the arrangement that will keep the beauty and freshness of the colour
Henri Matisse
Volkmar Essers, Henri Matisse (1993). “Matisse”, Taschen

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.
Henri Matisse

Another word for creativity is courage.
Henri Matisse

My choice of colors does not rest on any scientific theory, it is based on observation, on feeling, on the experience of my sensibility.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.41, Univ of California Press

I never retouch a sketch: I take a canvas the same size, as I may change the composition somewhat. But I always strive to give the same feeling, while carrying it on further.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.67, Univ of California Press

Another word for creativity is courage.
Henri Matisse

Slowly I discovered the secret of my art. It consists of a meditation on nature, on the expression of a dream which is always inspired by reality. With more involvement and regularity, I learned to push each study in a certain direction. Little by little the notion that painting is a means of expression asserted itself, and that one can express the same thing in several ways. Exactitude is not truth, Delacroix liked to say.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, Univ of California Press

The artist has to look at life as he did when he was a child. If he loses that faculty, he cannot express himself in an original, that is, a personal way.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.218, Univ of California Press

When an artist or student draws a nude figure with painstaking care, the result is drawing, and not emotion.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.66, Univ of California Press

The effort to see things without distortion takes something like courage and this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he saw it for the first time.
Henri Matisse

The portrait is one of the most curious art forms. It demands special qualities in the artist, and an almost total kinship with the model.
Henri Matisse
Volkmar Essers, Henri Matisse (1993). “Matisse”, Taschen

If people knew what Matisse, supposedly the painter of happiness, had gone through, the anguish and tragedy he had to overcome to manage to capture that light which has never left him, if people knew all that, they would also realize that this happiness, this light, this dispassionate wisdom which seems to be mine, are sometimes well-deserved, given the severity of my trials.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.11, Univ of California Press

An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.
Henri Matisse

Hatred is a parasite that devours all. One doesn't build upon hatred, but upon love.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse (1977). “Henri Matisse Paper Cut-outs: National Gallery of Art Color Slide Program”

Art should be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue.
Henri Matisse

It is with color that you render light, though you must also feel this light, have it within yourself.
Henri Matisse

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.
Henri Matisse

Exactitude is not truth.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.179, Univ of California Press

If drawing belongs to the world of spirit and color to that of the senses, you must draw first to cultivate the spirit.
Henri Matisse

When I started to paint I felt transported into a kind of paradise... In everyday life I was usually bored and vexed... Starting to paint I felt gloriously free.
Henri Matisse

Cezanne, you see, is a sort of God of painting.
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, Univ of California Press

The energy within you is stronger than ever for being held back, compressed, and said No to.
Henri Matisse