• These incessant dialectical movements -- between process and product, person and society, one modality and another, intention and expression --are the core of the creative process.
• Albert Einstein describes some of his ways of thinking: The words or the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanisms of thought. The physical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain sings and more or less clear images which can be voluntarily reproduced or combined.

Sources of Thought

• From the beginnings of life, the inward flow of sensations and experiences is organized by the brain in a variety of ways. The transformation of what is heard, seen, or touched is dependent upon the skill of the human mind in representing events as images, as inner speech, as kinesthetic symbols. Through these varied forms or languages, the consequences or meanings of these experiences are stored.
• Invisible tools that help transform a gifted young person into a productive artist or scientist: Some individuals first approach their task externally, by exploring forms rather than their own personal sources, Others struggle with their inner experience, which drives them toward exploring their artistic world.
• Part of the despair and excitement that characterizes the early years of creative individuals is linked to their efforts to bridge the gap between their sense of purpose and its fulfillment. The first and most powerful sign that an individuals is commuted to a life of creative endeavors is his or her sense of intensity: the need to see, explore, understand, experience, and to go beyond what is already known. All of this is part of the development of invisible tools.
• Among the invisible tools of creative individuals is their ability to hold on to the specific texture of their past. This ability was described in fine detail by Stephen Spender in his well-known essay on creativity. He suggested that poets do not forget their sense-impressions; they know how to record, both mentally as well as in notebooks, the facts and shapes of their existence.
• The creative use of one's past requires a memory that is both powerful and selective.
• The great Russian musician believed that patience was an essential aspect of his sustained creativity. While he treasured his intense moments of musical inspiration, he also knew that the music he created during these short bursts of time needed expansion and re-working.
• One of the most demanding aspects of creative discipline is the revision process: artists and scientists clarify their condensed thoughts through the successive drafts (or versions) of their work. The process is like a dialogue between the artist and his or her product.
• In attempting to answer the question what is creative thought? one aspect of the answer -- the notion of synthesis -- emerges from the accounts of creative individuals and from the analyses of research studies. Of greatest importance in the thought activity of artists and scientists is their pulling together of ideas, images, disarrayed facts and fragments of experience, which have previously been apprehended by them as separated in time and space, into an integrated word. it is this synthesis that most concerns me in this discussion: the joining of rapid bursts of thought with a regime of disciplined work.
• Generally speaking, the germ of a future composition comes suddenly and unexpectedly, Tchaikovsky wrote. The success of working with such "thought-train" -- in Hannah Ardent's expression -- depends on a fully prepared mind. But the mental powers necessary to extend one's understanding and to transform one 's thoughts into creative works mature slowly. The furtherance and expansion of the talents of gifted individual requires not only the mastery of his or her craft, but also a strong and enduring sense of self.
• Howard Grubber described the creative individual's life as a "self-regenerating system": A creative moments is part of a longer creative process, which in its turn is part of a creative life. How are such lives lived? How can I express this peculiar idea that such an individual must be a self-generating system? Not a system that comes to rest when it has done good work, but one that urges itself onward. And yet, not a run-away system that accelerates its activity to the point where it burns itself out in one great flash. The system regulates the activity and the creative acts regenerate the system. The creative life happens in a being who can continue to work.
• The mind at word is engaged in diverse efforts at unification. Energy and commitment are needed in shaping the inner shorthand of ideas into public ally available word -- the joining of thought and realization -- which is sustained in a variety of ways: by "the courage to create," by a well-honed discipline and a fully-prepared mind, by the artist's passion for his or her task. The hope that is essential for regeneration is nourished by the emotional support and intellectual sharing of those "places, people and things," as Santayana has said, upon whose support the creative individual depends.

The languages of the Mind

• Visual Thinking: It is the representation of knowledge in the form of structures in motions; it is the study of relationships of these forms and structures; it is the flow of images as pictures, diagrams, explanatory models, orchestrated paintings of immense ideas, and simple gestures; it is work with schemes and structures of the mind.
• Verbal Thinking: The inner language of thought differs from the language used for communicative exchanges in its rapidity, in its condensed form, and in its functions. In the maintenance of human contact, language may indeed be "stabilizing". But language has multiple functions and forms, some of which are more suited for discovery and others more suited for the construction and maintenance of shared experiences, beliefs, and knowledge.
• The Languages of Emotional: Music and Dance.
• Scientific Thinking: Metaphors, analogies, and the delineation of new patterns are the stuff of insights. These are then tested, and weighed for their levels of truthfulness by the application of the scientists' research. Logic and metaphor, quick thought and lengthy periods of evaluation characterize the creative endeavor, though the very act of writing and coupling such words demands a contradiction. At times the struggle with an idea is incredibly lengthy while its assessment -- as in the case of building the model of the double helix -- can be quite rapid.

Conclusion: The Creativity of Thinking

Thinking--how shall I define it? It is a soundless dialogue, it is the weaving of patterns, it is a search for meaning. The activity of thought contributes to and shapes all that is specifically human.