Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Recognizing ideas when they present themselves is more important than actively searching for them.
This quote by Stephen King emphasizes the importance of awareness and attentiveness in the creative process. Rather than solely focusing on the quest for new ideas, one should be open and perceptive to the ideas that naturally arise in everyday life. It suggests that inspiration often comes from unexpected places and that being receptive can lead to creativity and innovation.
Themes
IdeasRecognitionCreativityAwarenessInspiration
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about creative processes in a workshop.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Stephen KingRead
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Stephen KingRead
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
Stephen KingRead
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Stephen KingRead
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Stephen KingRead
Similar quotes
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.
Niels BohrRead
The historian's first duties are sacrilege and the mocking of false gods. They are his indispensable instruments for establishing the truth.
Jules MicheletRead
Even after many years, kata practice is never finished, for there is always something new to be learned about executing a movement.
Shoshin NagamineRead
To write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers pay within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.
Mark TwainRead
Worldly Wisdom Do not stay in the field! Nor climb out of sight. The best view of the world Is from a medium height.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
One way leads to acquisition, the other leads to nirvana. Realising this a monk should take no pleasure in the respect of others, but should devote himself to solitude.
Gautama BuddhaRead