Mose Allison Quotes

Creativity requires input, and that's what research is. You're gathering material with which to build.

I've just been writing stuff down as it comes to me. I haven't thought, 'Let me write some major opus here.'

When I sit down to write, I don't have any real goals except to follow one good sentence with another... I'm not the kind of writer who has a map.

My favourite part of writing a book is thinking up the ideas, and that can start a long time before I actually sit down at my desk.

I cannot outline. I do not know what the next thing is going to happen in the book until it comes out of my fingers.

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

To generate creative ideas, it's important to start from an unusual place. But to explain those ideas, they have to be connected to something familiar.

Procrastination gives you time to consider divergent ideas, to think in nonlinear ways, to make unexpected leaps.

I'm one of these people that just like to brainstorm.

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

I never work from an outline, and often I don't know how the story will end.

When you have a creative mind it doesn't stop going.

I never really have to sit at a desk thinking, 'What should I do now?' It doesn't work like that for me, and it never has. My thinking process is constant.

A lot of writing is thinking.

I'm not an outliner. I come up with a premise and then take it from there.

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. It is a process; it's not random.

Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.

My writing process is very organic. I start with an idea. I have the general story arc and the cast. But then I sit down to write, and things change.

I don't sit down in front of my computer screen and think, 'Right. Today I shall begin a story set in this or that period of history.' I just get ideas from the world around me.

I'm very much an observer and a conduit of thoughts and ideas.

I'm always thinking of stuff; I just don't sit down and write it. I come up with material more as I go along; if something funny happens, I'll make a note of it on my phone.

I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about.

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.

I do think that I'm a big believer in having an idea or having ideas and just tucking them away in the back of your brain. Even if you aren't consciously thinking of them, I think they simmer. You're working on them, even if you don't know you're working on them, and I think having something in your head for a while is a valuable thing.

I'm not the sort of writer who can plan out things. Mostly I have no idea where I'm going.