John Ashbery Quotes

Creativity and insight almost always involve an experience of acute pattern recognition: the eureka moment in which we perceive the interconnection between disparate concepts or ideas to reveal something new.

You can't really think about more than one movie at a time. You're thinking about it consciously, and the subconscious is working too, and if you cram too much into your head, you don't get any ideas in the shower.

The great thing about ideas is that every new idea leads to two more new ones. It’s the opposite of a gold rush, where the more people who show up in 1849 to get that gold in California, the faster the gold runs out. Ideas are not like that; ideas breed.

The imagination is how things get done. You have to cultivate creativity.

I pressed down the mental accelerator. The old lemon throbbed fiercely. I got an idea.

You don't have a really good idea until you combine two little ideas.

If you have several ideas that all seem pretty good, work on the one that you think about, when you're not trying to think about work.

All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.

You're bound to get idears if you go thinkin' about stuff

We try to preach innovation. We provide resources; we invite speakers in from universities to talk about new ideas.

Imagination is the air of mind.

Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.

Ideas sometimes come from nowhere, and sometimes they take lots of thinking.

At the moment, I'm toying with a new idea for a book, but fully engaged with writing screenplays, so the book idea - which needs empty space in my head - is barely formed yet.

Creativity is a spark. It can be excruciating when we're rubbing two rocks together and getting nothing. And it can be intensely satisfying when the flame catches and a new idea sweeps around the world.

For some reason, some of my best solutions and ideas are triggered in those dark theaters, usually totally unrelated to what's going on onscreen. I also enjoy hiking in the foothills and mountains close to Sacramento. I always have to bring a pen and paper to jot down sudden thoughts and ideas. So inspiration arises from countless sources.

Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realize what's wrong with it.

You don't actually have ideas; ideas have you.

I don't know how to explain it, but when you're working on something constantly, and you're digging in deep, things kind of fall in, and you grab them, and you're like, 'That one!' and 'That thing!' and it starts to build something right.

A new idea is like carbonated liquid in a bottle. You just sort of shake it until the cork pops, then you write and write.

If you do come up with a new idea, in 4 seconds it will belong to somebody else.

The new idea for me now is creativity. I like to express myself.

There are definitely times - and I think this is pretty common among cartoonists - where you spend an entire day trying to think of an idea, and you're like, 'I give up.' And then you go and take a shower or run an errand, and halfway there, you get an idea.

Sometimes the best ideas will come in the least inspiring places.

It's a must to continually stay alert and aware because ideas come from everywhere. And beyond relying on your fine-tuned radar to pick up on the next inspiration, consider seeking mentors.