Creativity

A Short and Cheerful Guide

By: John Cleese

Narrated by: John Cleese

The legendary comedian, actor, and writer of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and A Fish Called Wanda fame shares his key ideas about creativity: that it’s a learnable, improvable skill.

“Many people have written about creativity, but although they were very, very clever, they weren't actually creative. I like to think I'm writing about it from the inside.”—John Cleese

You might think that creativity is some mysterious, rare gift—one that only a few possess. But you’d be wrong. As John Cleese shows in this short, practical, and often amusing guide, creativity is a skill that anyone can acquire.

Drawing on his lifelong experience as a writer, Cleese shares his insights into the nature of creativity and offers advice on how to get your own inventive juices flowing. What do you need to do to get yourself in the right frame of mind? When do you know that you’ve come up with an idea that might be worth pursuing? What should you do if you think you’ve hit a brick wall?

We can all be more creative.

John Cleese shows us how.

Critic reviews

“Creativity . . . is . . . [a] meditation on how anyone, whether breaking into TV or leading a corporate giant, can tap into his or her creative gifts.”—The Wall Street Journal

“A versatile entertainer shares encouraging advice. . . . His candor is endearing. An upbeat guide to the creative process.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[A] humorous and practical guide . . . Whether you’re hoping to write a novel or paint a masterpiece, you’re sure to feel inspired.”—OK!

John Cleese's style

Direct to the point. short and sweet. funny and layback. Direct advise coming from a true creative.

Punchy and liberating

So happy I stumbled into this and decided to give it a listen. Finished this in one heartwarming laughter-filled sitting on a sunny afternoon, with my awe for creativity renewed.

I want to give this book a million stars but they won’t let me.

I recently went through a tough time during the pandemic said “F this” got a business coach, a nutritionist and at the grand old age of 65 went off to build a new life, a new business, find new capacity for creativity. I stumbled across virtually everything in John’s book by trial and error by reading everything that wasn’t nailed down about how the brain works and how emotions are created and can be controlled and how a person can truly control their own destiny. This book taught me a number of new things, clarified a lot, and would have cut down my learning process by about three months. Final notes: 1. My learning period 2021 made that year the best and worst of my life. 2. I think John could add a chapter about exorcizing the negative emotion that originates in your childhood and stays with you through life. 3. I love John Cleese, one of my best decisions was taking my dad seriously when he said, 55 or so years ago, “these guys are funny you should watch them”. 4. To Neil Lafortune, my drum teacher, this book explains why I all of a sudden got better at drumming. Finally, calm your hare mind and buy the book, but you won’t understand what I just said without reading the book (Sorry if that piece of advice puts your hare mind in a chicken or egg debate loop with itself.) That’s my review, have to conclude because I have a parrot problem to contend with. Thanks John!

Funny, Insightful and refreshing

A very informative book by John Cleese and all the better that he narrated. If you’re a Monty Python and Fish Called Wanda fan, this is a treasure. His creative approach is an unchained method with less “stress” and sound advice to foster creativity.

Wisdom and wit without fluff

Take advice about the process and frustration of developing your ideas from a man who has actually done the thing, and in spades! This short book is worth more due to its brevity, especially for those of us with a short attention span. Rich in content, it’s entertaining to listen to Cleese tell it his way. I would even call it a privilege.