Jonathan Miller Quotes

Intellectual curiosity drove Einstein to some of the world's most important discoveries.

If I could have anyone's mind for a day, I really can't think of anyone other than Einstein.

I'm not a craftsman of graphics or art or film. I'm more of an idea generator and manufacturer.

I picture my books as movies when I get stuck, and when I'm working on a new idea, the first thing I do is hit theaters to work out pacing and mood.

First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.

As a creative person, you want to start with a blank canvas.

People have asked me a lot, 'What comes first? The pictures or the story? The story or the picture?' It's hard to describe because often they seem to come at the same time. I'm seeing images while I'm thinking of the story.

I get ideas from everywhere: movies, books, movies, nature - it comes into my brain, it sits there for a while, and it starts coming back out.

Most of what Einstein said and did has no direct impact on what anybody reads in the Bible. Special relativity, his work in quantum mechanics, nobody even knows or cares. Where Einstein really affects the Bible is the fact that general relativity is the organizing principle for the Big Bang.

Of course, Einstein was a very great scientist indeed, and I have enormous respect for him, and great admiration for the discoveries he made. But he was very committed to a view of the objectivity of the physical world.

I would say in one sentence my goal is to at least be part of the journey to find the unified theory that Einstein himself was really the first to look for. He didn't find it, but we think we're hot on the trail.

I start with an idea in my head. I sketch it out quickly as a line drawing, using pencil. It never comes out quite right - usually a bit better than my mental picture.

I should have been a son of Einstein.

One rule of invention: before you can invent it, you have to imagine it.

All of this technology wasn't available to Einstein. I bet he would've invented LIGO.

I love the creative process - brainstorming and coming up with campaigns.

When I'm problem-solving with something, I have, effectively, a CAD program in my head that's like a room that has specific qualities to it that I go to some deal of effort to populate. Textures and smells, something like that.

Imagination is really dependent on memory and observation, these things that we think of as part of nonfiction writing, actually.

One of the things I sort of dreamt about awhile ago is that if Einstein were still alive, it would be absolutely wonderful to go to him and tell him about the discovery, and he would have been very pleased, I'm sure of that.

If you're using your imagination, you tend to look into the past for ideas.

I now know that inspirations must come from everywhere.

I love creating. I love being with creative people who can think quickly on their feet.

I enjoy being creative.

No matter what you write, you need an active imagination.

Creative ideas aren't like Jenga blocks, where they fall apart and you've got to start from scratch, though it can feel that way.