So you just sit there and, eventually, as the mind quietens, odd ideas and notions relevant to your puzzle start popping in your mind. But they are … odd! And the reason they seem odd is that they’re not what our usual logical, critical, analytical mind is used to. They don’t arrive in the form of words, in neatly typed little sentences. Because th

creative people are much better at tolerating the vague sense of worry that we all get when we leave something unresolved.

The trouble is that most people want to be right. The very best people, however, want to know if they’re right.

if you have zero expectations at the start, you can hardly fail. And you’re already priming your unconscious…

Once you’ve come up with a new idea, there are two ways to test it. First, there is the one I described earlier, when you bring the critical faculties you suspended during the playful stage to bear on whatever it is that you have thought of. You’re now sufficiently clear about your idea to be in a position to evaluate it. If you decide it can be im

If you are an experienced writer, and you show people your work, there are four questions you need to ask: Where were you bored? Where could you not understand what was going on? Where did you not find things credible? Was there anything that you found emotionally confusing?

The first was that the creative architects knew how to play. The second was that the creative architects always deferred making decisions for as long as they were allowed.

The anthropologist Gregory Bateson once said, ‘You can’t have a new idea ’til you’ve got rid of an old one.’

‘Sorry this is such a long letter, but I didn’t have time to write a shorter one.’