The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity.

I get my ideas from a retired colonel in Hampshire and he gets his from a lady who runs the post office in north Devon. Where she gets them from I don’t know.

… it’s important that your conscious mind isn’t over-stimulated by challenging tasks or engaging conversations that are totally unrelated to your creative problem. If it is, your unconscious will think you’re not really that interested in finding a solution to the problem.

Anecdotal evidence shows that the majority of people get their best ideas when they are off-guard and least expect it.

You can’t guarantee that you’ll come up with a great idea; all you can do is to create the conditions for creativity to happen.

It’s like planting a seed in your garden. You just plant it in good soil and make sure it gets plenty of water and sun.

Sarcasm may make you more creative…

… new research from Harvard Business school suggests that the processes involved with initiating and delivering a sarcastic comment may improve the creativity and cognitive functioning of both the commenter and the recipient.

… a lot of people believe that being creative is all about having ideas.

… But filling your head full of the right information is just as vital… If you haven’t got enough information, you’ll never come up with any good ideas.

Every new idea is born drowning.

To me, writing and composing are much more like painting, about colours and brushes…

I don’t use a computer when I write and I don’t use a piano… I think very abstractly when I’m writing. Then as the project moves on it becomes more like sculpting