34 Quotes by Richard Florida

Beneath the surface, unnoticed by many, an even deeper force was at work—the rise of creativity as a fundamental economic driver, and the rise of a new social class, the Creative Class.

The creative individual is no longer viewed as an iconoclast. He—or she—is the new mainstream.

Too much of what led up to the crisis in the old bubble days—the conspicuous consumption, the latter-day Gatsbyism—was fueled by a need to fill a huge emotional and psychological void left by the absence of meaningful work. When people cease to find meaning in work, when work is boring, alienating, and dehumanizing, the only option becomes the urge to consume—to buy happiness off the shelf, a phenomenon we now know cannot suffice in the long term.

Ideas are the currency of the new economy.

Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource.

Places that succeed in attracting and retaining creative class people prosper; those that fail don't.

Access to talented and creative people is to modern business what access to coal and iron ore was to steel-making.

People don't need to be managed, they need to be unleashed.

I call the age we are entering the creative age because the key factor propelling us forward is the rise of creativity as the primary mover of our economy.