Steven Johnson Quotes

One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.

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

For the birth of something new, there has to be a happening. Newton saw an apple fall; James Watt watched a kettle boil; Roentgen fogged some photographic plates. And these people knew enough to translate ordinary happenings into something new.

I don't do a lot of research, exactly, but I'm constantly wandering through the world finding things incredible and remembering them.

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.

A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.

Watching TV on your own is not very inspiring. But meeting people is where you get new ideas and get things done.

What drives the creative person is that we see it all.

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.

Reading has been the fuel of my motivation: it has changed the direction in which I have traveled, and it has enhanced my creative imagination more than any other activity I have ever pursued.

I'm inspired by almost everything I come across in life, and one way or another they find themselves sneaking into my stories.

Imagination needs to be fed.

My insights come in periods of working. There are wonderful moments of surprise, but I'm superstitious enough not to want to talk about them.

I enjoy looking beyond the obvious and look at the stories happening all around me - you kind of formulate things in your mind and get excited about them.

I'm not a sponge exactly, but I find that something I look at is a great opportunity for ideas.

Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful, or to discover something that is true.

I started to think about what drives innovation and what its social significance might be. The next step was to think innovators are taking a leap into the unknown. That led me to the thought that it is also a source of fun and employee engagement.

You can't just give someone a creativity injection. You have to create an environment for curiosity and a way to encourage people and get the best out of them.

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

All the things worth writing about are outside me. I'm a lens, not a source. And even if it's not always a comfortable journey, it's always a stimulating one.

I'm inspired by many different things. Often, I'm inspired by experiences I've had, books I've read, people I've met, stories I've heard.

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.

You can find inspiration when you're not even looking for it.

The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.