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Spark: How Creativity Works
“This is a book about joy, drive and art, work that we’re all capable of if we’ll only commit.” —Seth Godin, author of Linchpin Public Radio International’s Julie Burstein, creator of the award-winning program Studio 360 , along with its host Kurt Andersen, offers a rare, fascinating glimpse into some of the 21st century's greatest creative minds—from Yo-Yo Ma and Robert Plant to Mira Nair and Chuck Close, to David Milch and Joyce Carol Oates, to Rosanne Cash and beyond. Fans of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers , Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind , Rosamund Zander’s The Art of Possibility , and Lynda Barry’s What It Is will be enthralled and electrified by this unique look at the creative process of the world’s most talented and prolific artists.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
47 people are currently reading
671 people want to read
About the author
Julie Burstein
1 book2 followersJulie Burstein is a Peabody Award-winning radio producer, best-selling author, and public speaker who has spent her working life in conversation with highly creative people - interviewing, probing, guiding, and creating public radio programs about them and their work. In Spark: How Creativity Works, she maps out some of the coordinates and dimensions of creativity. No one can exactly explain creativity, but Julie offers a tour through some of its essential byways; shining a beam onto its mysterious workings in a way that is illuminating and can help us find more of that dimension within ourselves, and put it to good use.
Julie is the host of Spark Talks at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a series of conversations with writers, musicians, artists, entrepreneurs and scientists that explores current issues through the lens of The Met's collection. The TED conference asked Julie to speak at TED2012, and she often gives talks about creativity and innovation at museums, corporations, and universities.
In 2000, Julie created Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen for Public Radio International, public radio's premiere program about creativity, entertainment and the arts. She led the Studio 360 creative team at WNYC for many years. Julie is also known for her engaging on-air presence as a frequent guest host on The Leonard Lopate Show, she has created radio series for Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic, and her many stories about arts and culture have appeared on public radio, from the secret to making Easter Peeps and Bunnies and the art of pumpkin carving for NPR, to reports about design, music, dance, theater, and visual arts for Studio 360 and Marketplace.
Julie is the host of pursuitofspark.com, conversations about creative approaches to the challenges, possibilities, and pleasures of everyday life and work.
When "Spark" was published in February, 2011, Vanity Fair wrote "In Spark (Harper), Burstein, with a foreword by Andersen, offers enlightening answers from the culture's heavy hitters, including Chuck Close, Yo-Yo Ma, and Richard Ford, on which experiences, memories, tragedies, or landscapes ignited their imaginations, as well as the process by which they stoked these embers into a roaring fire, and how you, yes, you, might too."
Julie is the host of Spark Talks at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a series of conversations with writers, musicians, artists, entrepreneurs and scientists that explores current issues through the lens of The Met's collection. The TED conference asked Julie to speak at TED2012, and she often gives talks about creativity and innovation at museums, corporations, and universities.
In 2000, Julie created Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen for Public Radio International, public radio's premiere program about creativity, entertainment and the arts. She led the Studio 360 creative team at WNYC for many years. Julie is also known for her engaging on-air presence as a frequent guest host on The Leonard Lopate Show, she has created radio series for Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic, and her many stories about arts and culture have appeared on public radio, from the secret to making Easter Peeps and Bunnies and the art of pumpkin carving for NPR, to reports about design, music, dance, theater, and visual arts for Studio 360 and Marketplace.
Julie is the host of pursuitofspark.com, conversations about creative approaches to the challenges, possibilities, and pleasures of everyday life and work.
When "Spark" was published in February, 2011, Vanity Fair wrote "In Spark (Harper), Burstein, with a foreword by Andersen, offers enlightening answers from the culture's heavy hitters, including Chuck Close, Yo-Yo Ma, and Richard Ford, on which experiences, memories, tragedies, or landscapes ignited their imaginations, as well as the process by which they stoked these embers into a roaring fire, and how you, yes, you, might too."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
March 24, 2018
I am not giving this book less than two stars probably because there is a fair amount of people I truly admire in this. The title sets as a premise that we are to expect some explanation to how creativity works from this. There is none. Seaming together the experiences of a bunch of different cool people with some quotes and nice titles does not account for much. Not really. Getting impressions from all these people is a feat, but that does not make it automatically fit for book material. It was also a very annoying read in the sense that, besides not saying much about creativity or the creative process, it did not even reveal that much about these people's lives. Two-thirds of it is made up of spoilers for movies and plays and books. Why would you waste paper on describing in such detail the scripts and such written by these people, when we can and would probably get a significantly better experience from just seeing the movie or reading their work, instead of talking about them and the way they do the things they do? I wanted more, way more. It was a disappointing read.
March 9, 2021
Click!bait
July 31, 2014
Doesn't exactly tell you how to be creative but makes you want to give it a go.
August 18, 2020
I thought it would be more of a study of how creativity actually works. Instead, it was just life stories of how some artists work and their methods. It was nice to read some but not enlightening at all.
February 10, 2014
I am so excited about this book. It is fascinating to read how successful artsy people excelled.
One of the artists interviewed said, "If you wait for clouds to part and be struck with a bolt of lightning, you're likely to be waiting the rest of your life. But if you simply get going something will occur to you."
I was struck by the fact that overcoming adversity in some way was often the key to creativity.
Chuck Close, a very famous portrait painter, had to overcome prosopagnosia- the inability to recognize faces. Imagine! because he could not recognize individual's faces he became a portrait painter. He drew a grid on photographs and took the face square by square and created these wonderful portraits, and in the process was able to recognize faces from his artwork. And when you think proopagnosia is enough of a detriment for this portraitist, he has a spinal aneurysm which leave him paralyzed from the neck down in a matter of hours.
The tragically beautiful way that Donald Hall, already a great poet, became greater was through the death of his much younger wife, Jane Kenyon. The grief and mourning that Hall captures in his poetry, Without, is something no human being could fake.
When the artist was confined in some way, either by placing his/her own parameters or confined from something beyond his/her control, the art was better.
Ben Burtt, the noise behind Star Wars and Wall-E, limits himself in that the noises he 'invents' come from everyday life and are not simply digitally or electronically produced. The hum of the saber came from the hum of an interlock motor on a projector coupled with the sound from a broken microphone passing by a television set, picking up a buzz from the television.
On and on, I read of these amazing artists who became amazing because they were willing to go through the trials with which their lives had confronted them, and they produced triumphant, glorious art.
Or Ang Lee, a first son of Chinese parents, he was expected to go to college and excel in that way. And yet, he could not push his love of theatre and movies out of his mind. Across the world, James Schamus was growing up watching and loving movies. These two men manage to connect and go on to make incredibly artistic films.
These stories come by way of Public Radio International's weekly broadcast, Studio 360, hosted by Kurt Anderson. Never heard of it before, I am glad to be introduced via this book.
You will be inspired.
One of the artists interviewed said, "If you wait for clouds to part and be struck with a bolt of lightning, you're likely to be waiting the rest of your life. But if you simply get going something will occur to you."
I was struck by the fact that overcoming adversity in some way was often the key to creativity.
Chuck Close, a very famous portrait painter, had to overcome prosopagnosia- the inability to recognize faces. Imagine! because he could not recognize individual's faces he became a portrait painter. He drew a grid on photographs and took the face square by square and created these wonderful portraits, and in the process was able to recognize faces from his artwork. And when you think proopagnosia is enough of a detriment for this portraitist, he has a spinal aneurysm which leave him paralyzed from the neck down in a matter of hours.
The tragically beautiful way that Donald Hall, already a great poet, became greater was through the death of his much younger wife, Jane Kenyon. The grief and mourning that Hall captures in his poetry, Without, is something no human being could fake.
When the artist was confined in some way, either by placing his/her own parameters or confined from something beyond his/her control, the art was better.
Ben Burtt, the noise behind Star Wars and Wall-E, limits himself in that the noises he 'invents' come from everyday life and are not simply digitally or electronically produced. The hum of the saber came from the hum of an interlock motor on a projector coupled with the sound from a broken microphone passing by a television set, picking up a buzz from the television.
On and on, I read of these amazing artists who became amazing because they were willing to go through the trials with which their lives had confronted them, and they produced triumphant, glorious art.
Or Ang Lee, a first son of Chinese parents, he was expected to go to college and excel in that way. And yet, he could not push his love of theatre and movies out of his mind. Across the world, James Schamus was growing up watching and loving movies. These two men manage to connect and go on to make incredibly artistic films.
These stories come by way of Public Radio International's weekly broadcast, Studio 360, hosted by Kurt Anderson. Never heard of it before, I am glad to be introduced via this book.
You will be inspired.
November 26, 2012
If you are looking for a book that explores the creative process in any sort of systematic way, this is not the book for you. Basically, the author--who is the producer of a New York based public radio show in which accomplished, creative people of all sorts are interviewed--has put 36 vignettes based on those interviews in a book. You can glean quite a bit about creativity from reading about these people's lives, mainly about their creative influences, how they observe the world, how, at times, limitations have ignited their creativity, and how moxie sometimes kept them going. I also noted a certain amount of privilege and influential interpersonal connections in several of the stories--creatives who went to Harvard and Yale, and went on (surprise, surprise) to have successful art careers. Of course, there are also stories of those who come from not much to be successful in creative fields. A wide variety of creative fields are explored; landscape architects, dancers, visual artists, musicians, film directors, and Hollywood sound designers, to name a few. I enjoyed the book enough to give it three stars, but wasn't bowled over by it.
February 14, 2015
At times, this book reads like a "best of" compilation for the author's show, Studio 360. Often, however, the book expands from the show’s format and content by providing a more expansive perspective with additional points of view (other than just the subject’s) and with more historical angles.
While several sections are wonderfully written and inspiring, there is a certain homogeneity with regards to the subjects and subject matter - progressive-leaning individuals in the arts. There also seems a sense of reverence and self-importance whereby it doesn’t probe as much as it should, almost to avoid offending its subjects. Finally, the title is also misleading in that the stories therein focus on a collection of creative "sparks" the subjects have had, rather than really how they came up with these sparks or how one may go about developing their own.
While several sections are wonderfully written and inspiring, there is a certain homogeneity with regards to the subjects and subject matter - progressive-leaning individuals in the arts. There also seems a sense of reverence and self-importance whereby it doesn’t probe as much as it should, almost to avoid offending its subjects. Finally, the title is also misleading in that the stories therein focus on a collection of creative "sparks" the subjects have had, rather than really how they came up with these sparks or how one may go about developing their own.
July 4, 2011
Julie Burstein, producer of Studio 360, here puts to the page the creative lives of actors, painters, singers, musicians, filmmakers, poets, sculptors, writers & a landscape designer who have appeared on that public radio show. While many of their stories and comments are compelling (especially the ones where suffering and adversity factors on their creative output), the book is written in the 3rd person, so some of the immediacy is lost. Also, far too many of the artists went to Yale or Harvard or Princeton, or had parents who actively promoted their talent when they were children, or led privileged lives. So their methods for creative achievement aren't the full story. To put it more bluntly, where's the hope for a poor girl like me?
October 1, 2020
قصص درامية لأشخاص عرف عنهم النجاح في شيء ما مثل الرسم او الغناء أو النحت و غيره .. لا يوجد في هذه القصص سوى السرد لحياة هؤلاء الأشخاص .. حالها اقرب ما يكون إلى الحشو و تعبئة ورق فقط .. حتى ان يذكر لون شعر أحدهم و غيرها من الاحداث التافهه .. فعندما يتحدث عن موضوع معين .. مثلا: متى تتوقف؟
تجد ان الكاتب يذكر قصة مؤلف مسرحية و كيفية تاليفه لها و متطلباتها و هذا جيد .. لكن الممل في الموضوع هو تطرقه لتفاصيل أحداث المسرحية و ما تحتويه من تفاصيل .. و هذا الامر ليس له علاقة بعنوان الكتاب و لا الهدف من الكتاب .. و حتى أكون منصفا .. في الفصل التاسع .. نجده يتحدث عن مواضيع ذات صله بالابداع و هي من صلب عنوان الكتاب .. و منها مثلا: الانطلاق في العمل .. الاحماء .. ابداع الطقوس .. جميع ما ذكره في هذه الجزئية رائع و مختصر و ذو علاقة وثيقة بالكتاب
لا يستحق الكتاب أكثر من ثلاث نجوم 🌟
October 9, 2014
This is more or less a series of outtakes from Studio 360, so if you like the show, you probably will like the book, although you might just prefer to listen to some podcasts.
It is interviews with creative folks about their own process. I was hoping for a bit of recent social science and research on creativity, but that's just not here.
One note is that this book would be a great candidate to be re-written as an interactive tablet app- it is continually referencing media- videos, art, etc. and I found myself continually looking things up.
It is interviews with creative folks about their own process. I was hoping for a bit of recent social science and research on creativity, but that's just not here.
One note is that this book would be a great candidate to be re-written as an interactive tablet app- it is continually referencing media- videos, art, etc. and I found myself continually looking things up.
February 26, 2017
I found the "How Creativity Works" portion of the title misleading. I thought I was going to read something scientific and instructive. Spark really turned out to be anecdotal notes taken from a variety of artists from the radio program Studio 360. Not a complete loss.
May 5, 2019
Going in to this book I thought this would be an exploration as to how to spark your creativity. Instead, this book explores the artistic processes of different types of artists. I did find it very interesting to learn how the creative process unfolded for the artists. In many of the cases, the ending piece of art was not the idea that was initially started. Rather than sticking to the initial idea, the artist would let inspiration be in control. This I believe can be a helpful idea for everyone.
A fantastic statement made by one of the artists is, "If you wait for clouds to part and be struck with a bolt of lightning, you're likely to be waiting the rest of your life. But if you simply get going something will occur to you." I think that often we want to wait for the perfect inspiration to hit us, when we need to begin the process in order for the artistic aspects to take place.
A fantastic statement made by one of the artists is, "If you wait for clouds to part and be struck with a bolt of lightning, you're likely to be waiting the rest of your life. But if you simply get going something will occur to you." I think that often we want to wait for the perfect inspiration to hit us, when we need to begin the process in order for the artistic aspects to take place.
February 28, 2022
Julie Burstein was the producer of Studio 360 on public radio which was, "the Peabody Award-winning show and podcast about creativity, pop culture, the arts and ideas." This has a bit about Julie as a narrative thread throughout but is mostly about the show and many of its guests.
The show has since ended, though episodes are online. If you were a listener of the show, I'm guessing you might not find much new content in the book but as someone who didn't listen regularly, the book was very enjoyable. I just might have to go back and give past episodes a listen.
The show has since ended, though episodes are online. If you were a listener of the show, I'm guessing you might not find much new content in the book but as someone who didn't listen regularly, the book was very enjoyable. I just might have to go back and give past episodes a listen.
April 16, 2024
With so much focus on creative art, I was highly disappointed at the lack of visuals in this book. The descriptions were strong to start the picture in my mind, but there wasn’t a single creator who had a description where I was instantly visualizing what they had intended.
That being said, so many forms of creative expression are discussed and analyzed, honing in on the creative process itself and the unique adaptations each artist makes as they develop their portfolio, credentials, and more.
That being said, so many forms of creative expression are discussed and analyzed, honing in on the creative process itself and the unique adaptations each artist makes as they develop their portfolio, credentials, and more.
October 11, 2020
If you're looking for practical advice on creativity - as in, how to generate/develop ideas, overcome problems, oblique thinking etc, this book sadly does not contain what it says on the tin. You will in my opinion not get much closer to knowing how creativity works from reading this book.
That said, some fascinating stories are told from a whole host of different creative human beings, which of course has value in and of itself.
That said, some fascinating stories are told from a whole host of different creative human beings, which of course has value in and of itself.
December 21, 2018
To tell you the truth the only part of this book I really liked and read properly was the introduction. The main body of the book was skim-worthy but not memorable but I found the idea of being an engaged amateur as described in the introduction a really helpful concept. It is a great antidote to impostor syndrome.
April 22, 2023
This is more a compendium of bits of Studio 360 interviews with artists than an in depth view of “how creativity works” although creativity is explored. At one point, I almost subscribed to the Studio 360 podcast, but felt like The Moment with Brian Koppelman scratched a similar itch. These profiles are interesting and I have some new artists to explore.
October 12, 2023
The book seems better in theory than implementations. Obviously, there is a lot to learn about creativity from exceptionally creative people. Just seemed like the book focused more on biographical description, behind the scenes info about creative works, and descriptions of creative works themselves, than on drawing clear lessons about how creativity works.
August 14, 2017
الكتاب يتحدث عن المبدعين من شتى أنحاء العالم، عن أعمالهم وحياتهم وما الذي أثر في أعمالهم الإبداعية، كان من الممكن أن يكون الكتاب ممتاز لو كان يتضمن صور لهذه الإبداعات لتثري الكلمة المكتوبة لأنها جعلت من الكتاب ممل فأغلب أسماء المبدعين المذكورة ليست مألوفة بالنسبة لي ولم أتعرف إلى أعمالهم من قبل
October 8, 2025
عنوان مضلل لأن الكتاب عن بعض أشكال الابداع ويسرد بعض الشخصيات والفنانين ونتائج فنونهم دون أن يتطرق إلى الكيفية أو الأسلوب أو أي تعمق في الطرح. الترجمة العربية ضعيفة والكتاب يتضمن العديد من الأخطاء اللغوية والإملائية.
March 22, 2018
Very nice reflections and vignettes about various people who work in creative fields. Everything from writing to music to visual art is discussed - As a creative myself, I really enjoyed this book!
September 1, 2020
I loved this! Fascinating look at the creative process for a diverse group of leaders/innovators in their various fields.
January 18, 2021
Fun to read about people’s creative process, but doesn’t talk much about the science of creativity. That’s why I couldn’t give it 5 stars.
March 17, 2021
Apesar das histórias serem interessantes o livro é extremamente aborrecido
June 1, 2021
Not what I was expecting. Should have a different title.
November 11, 2021
Full of unnecessary details and boring stories. Doesn't actually explain how creativity works.
July 7, 2025
I loved the glimpse into numerous perspectives of creativity, and I might just have to check out the Studio360 podcast some time.
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February 5, 2011Rating: 3 out of 3 stars
If you need inspiration, this would be the book for you to get. While this book won't show you how to get YOUR inspiration, it shows us how others have. We follow 35 artists, writers, film makers and more and learn about their road to creativity. We often assume "the greats" were born with creativity flowing like blood through their veins, however after reading their stories, it is surprising what they had to endure in order to get that flow going.
While each story is only about 3 pages long (I do wish they were a bit longer, although then we wouldn't have as many different views), you get an understanding of what each artist values when it comes to creativity. The bottom line: be yourself. Trust your gut and go with the simple ideas before trying to become "the next great thing". Anyone entering any aspect of the arts should pick this book up. It's a great representation of the real side of things. It's not all peaches and herb. Even the greats had to make due with what they found around them. And for this reason, are able to appreciate what they have accomplished.
If you need inspiration, this would be the book for you to get. While this book won't show you how to get YOUR inspiration, it shows us how others have. We follow 35 artists, writers, film makers and more and learn about their road to creativity. We often assume "the greats" were born with creativity flowing like blood through their veins, however after reading their stories, it is surprising what they had to endure in order to get that flow going.
While each story is only about 3 pages long (I do wish they were a bit longer, although then we wouldn't have as many different views), you get an understanding of what each artist values when it comes to creativity. The bottom line: be yourself. Trust your gut and go with the simple ideas before trying to become "the next great thing". Anyone entering any aspect of the arts should pick this book up. It's a great representation of the real side of things. It's not all peaches and herb. Even the greats had to make due with what they found around them. And for this reason, are able to appreciate what they have accomplished.
February 15, 2011
Though I read SPARK: HOW CREATIVITY WORKS through the eyes of a writer, I truly appreciated the common ground that creative people in all sorts of disciplines share...the willingness to take chances and fail, the need to "fill the well" from time to time, taking in scenery and art of other kinds. And the variety of artists included -- author Julie Burstein produces the public radio show STUDIO 360 and draws from a decade of interviews -- is truly impressive, from poets and novelists, to sculptors, landscape artists, photographers, and musicians. The collection of essays and interviews between these pages is both inspiring and comforting, I think, for artists who spend so much time working alone and yet need to know that we aren't really on our own at all.
May 18, 2015
I had to read this book for an English Project that involved us picking a topic that we were passionate about, I choose Creative Self-Expression. This book isn't what I was looking for, and to be honest, I don't know what I was actually looking for. This book doesn't really tell you how to be creative, but it makes you want to give it a go. It can inspire you to look for what you love and slowly start from there.
It's actually a bunch of interviews piled into a book, some are shorter than others but they are still wonderful.
It lists the creative process of some great artists/writers. It shows how they find inspiration to move onto the next thing, but it doesn't tell you how to find YOUR creative process.
It's actually a bunch of interviews piled into a book, some are shorter than others but they are still wonderful.
It lists the creative process of some great artists/writers. It shows how they find inspiration to move onto the next thing, but it doesn't tell you how to find YOUR creative process.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews