On interesting
Cultivating a point of view, finding ideas, understanding what Interesting is.
On interesting
Kurt Vonnegut, talking about when he tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope:
“Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of b
... See moreLauren Crichton added 5mo
“Consider how different your experience of the world might be if you engaged in every activity with the attention you might give to landing a plane.”
— Rick Rubin The Creative Act
Lauren Crichton added 4mo
“If something strikes me as interesting or beautiful, first I live that experience. Only afterward might I attempt to understand it.
Though we can’t change what it is that we are noticing, we can change our ability to notice.”
— Rick Rubin The Creative Act
Lauren Crichton added 4mo
People often ask me how I got the courage to put my work into the world.
I’m not sure I have any courage, but I do have rage .
This may come as a surprise to readers of my books, who tell me they’re rather helpful and upbeat. (Not words my friends and family might necessarily use to describe me!)
My secret is: the books are positive because I take a n... See more
I’m not sure I have any courage, but I do have rage .
This may come as a surprise to readers of my books, who tell me they’re rather helpful and upbeat. (Not words my friends and family might necessarily use to describe me!)
My secret is: the books are positive because I take a n... See more
Austin Kleon • What to do with your feelings - Austin Kleon
Lauren Crichton added 2mo
When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact, is a mental bucket: an attractor for and generator of thought. It’s like a thematic gravity well, a magnet for what would otherwise be a mess of iron filings. I’ll read books differently and listen differently in conversations. In particular I’ll remember everything better; everything wi... See more
jsomers.net • More People Should Write
Lauren Crichton added 2mo
The power of pattern recognition:
As I read, as I do my work, as I go about my days, the word ekphrasis continues to come up. I read it everywhere: in edits on a piece I’ve written about an artist’s documentaries, in Instagram captions, on podcasts. I’ve certainly encountered it before, probably in college, but I haven’t encountered it since—thi... See more
Lauren Crichton added 4mo
“When you’re working on a project, you may notice apparent coincidences appearing more often than randomness allows—almost if there is another hand guiding yours in a certain direction.” — Rick Rubin
I made a decision many years ago to shape my work around the books I read. If I’m being completely honest, I don’t recall spending a lot of time thinking about that decision or contemplating the consequences of it. It seemed right and so I ran with it. But it has since given rise to a kind of scholarship and writing that I’m not sure I would have l... See more
Mandy Brown • Coming Home
Lauren Crichton added 2d
Lauren Crichton added 4mo
"The best ideas happen when you bang things together." — Russell Davies, On Interesting
Lauren Crichton added 6mo
"Take a walk at night. Walk so slowly that the bottoms of your feet become ears." Alexandra Horowitz via Russell Davies.
Lauren Crichton added 6mo