Capturing an honest moment is one of the riskiest ways to create, but the results are real, and they stand the test of time. As musician Ben Folds tel...
How to spark others: Yo-Yo Ma on the Silk Road Project
The Silk Road Project was an impossibly ambitious, creatively expansive idea to not only create a category of music that had never been heard before, ...
Stick with it: "The Queen's Gambit" producers Allan Scott and Bill Horberg
When you fall in love with a project, stay with it – for as many years as necessary. Its time will come. When screenwriter Allan Scott acquired the fi...
Trust your instinct: Salsa legend Rubén Blades on the iconic song “Pedro Navaja”
“It’s too long. It’s too sad. It’s not danceable.” Just some of the feedback salsa legend Rubén Blades got from DJs and record labels about his iconic...
Stay authentic to yourself: Randall Park on making "Always Be My Maybe"
How do you create something an audience will love? Start with everything YOU love. Actor Randall Park ("Veep," "Fresh Off the Boat," "WandaVision"…) t...
Create the conditions for your own creativity: Yaa Gyasi on "Transcendent Kingdom"
To make a creative leap, get to know your creative self. After publishing a blockbuster first novel, "Homegoing," followed by a year of touring (and t...
Play to an elevated purpose: Wynton Marsalis on "The Democracy! Suite"
“Everything you do in the arts gives meaning to your way of life." In a year of pandemic, racial reckoning, and threats to democracy, Wynton Marsalis ...
Cultivate a child's sense of wonder: "Knives Out" director Rian Johnson
How do you create deeply imaginative work? There’s a method behind the magic. As Rian Johnson (Last Jedi, Looper, Brick) takes us on the journey of jo...
Oscar winner Pixar's Kemp Powers on "Soul": The best person for the project
How do you create an authentic character? Start with your authentic self. When Kemp Powers joined the writers' room at Pixar, he found a story waiting...
How to build your creative vision: Photographer Stephen Wilkes on the 2021 Inauguration Photo
Making art is a distillation of all your life experiences – from the half-remembered images from your childhood to your fascination with what's happen...