Where do ideas come from?

“Your best work will sit at the intersection of fun and challenge and it’s important to try and design your life to spend as much time there as possible. … Creativity is maintenance.”

I like this distinction. Great art makes you wonder, great design makes things clear.

Philosopher and activist Simone Weil on the power of sustained, intense focus:

"The amount of creative genius in any period is strictly in proportion to the amount of extreme attention."

I think of writing a lot like walking. It’s rarely the most popular, the most effective, or the most efficient way of getting to your destination. I don’t always want to do it, and it’s not always technically enjoyable; sometimes it’s boring or slow, sometimes it’s tiring and pointless, sometimes it’s cold or wet or windy and I’m retracing the same... See more