Heidi Julavits Quotes

I do try to do high-impact work, and I try to think of ideas people haven't thought about that have broad implications, but I don't restrict myself to that. I try to work on things that I find interesting.

My films are so new and unique that I don't know where I will end up. Fear keeps me alert. And it's also a part of an excitement.

When writing 'Give and Take' and 'Originals,' the predominant emotion for me was curiosity.

I feel like if you read something, and it makes you so curious about a topic that you then go read something else, that's exciting.

I'm more interested in what I discover than what I invent.

Poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing.

Dig into life with wild roving abandon, opening your mind to the delicious possibilities that perplex the mind, entice the heart, and excite the spirit.

I've always been a great believer that you have to keep producing new things in order to keep life interesting - not only for ourselves, but for the audience as well. That's really always been our principle and way of working.

I get curious about new things. My real strength is going into a field that has not been investigated before, and finding new approaches to it.

I think I've always been slightly addicted to not repeating myself. When you're doing something the first time around, it's often the best time. I think 'Blank Project' is about carrying on. Its that thing where you're making something because you have to, but you don't know how or why.

Predictability is boring! I want a book to take me someplace I haven't been before, show me sights I haven't seen, make me ponder questions I may not have pondered before.

I'm ever curious about the world. I'm driven to go out and find new things to write about. Having a vivid imagination is also a plus.

I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.

I'm normally drawn to something I haven't done and seen before.

No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.

Strange questions are the more interesting ones. Children by and large don't try to trip you up... they want to find out how you do this funny thing that you do... if they've loved a story they love to know how it started.

To us, the value of a work lies in its newness: the invention of new forms, or a novel combination of old forms, the discovery of unknown worlds or the exploration of unfamiliar areas in worlds already discovered - revelations, surprises.

Research is not an obstacle, something to be frightened of. It can be one of the real joys of writing.

When I was thirteen, I was in a supermarket with my mother, and for no reason at all, I picked up a science-fiction book at the checkout stand and started reading it. I couldn't believe I was doing that, actually reading a book. And, man, it opened up a whole new thing. Reading became the sparkplug of my imagination.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

I think we always move from imitation to assimilation to innovation, but I can't name you 20 people outside those we've already recognized who ever got to point three: innovation.

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

I have fun with ideas; I play with them.

I try not to invent; I try simply to translate the weird language of the natural world. And I'm not into absolute ownership of things.