PAUL LATHAM

Set parameters that force you out of your comfort zone. If you always write on a laptop, try using a yellow legal pad. If you’re right-handed, paint using your left hand. If you base your melodies on instrumentals, write one acappella. If you film using professional equipment, consider making an entire movie with only the camera in your phone. If y

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Going to museums and looking at great art can help you write better songs. Reading great novels… Seeing a great movie… reading poetry… The more you can do to get out of the mode of competition, where you get out of what other people are doing and wanting to be better than them or be inspired by them. The only way to use the inspiration of other ar

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People naturally remember musical language, and I would encourage writers to inject their prose with a bit of music. When you’re writing, think about repetition and variety. Crescendos and rests. Pace and punctuation. Read your work out loud, and feel the rhythm of the words in your voice.

"Doesn't it strike you as interesting that we are in the second decade of the 21st century and a lot of the most interesting music is still being made by people playing very primitive instruments like electric guitars and drums.

I mean, what is a drum kit? It could be a bunch of old chairs or cans or anything. It's really quite an arbitrary bunch of... See more

If we set out to ask a question and rush to answer it, we haven't allowed the question to hang suspended over the void, We haven't listened.

Open-endedness creates the space for a response to come. Let's call this space a "pause." The pause is not only the secret of knowing yourself, it is the secret of all healing. Within the pause, the response fi... See more