Hilary Mantel Quotes

Imagination only comes when you privilege the subconscious, when you make delay and procrastination work for you.

The creative process requires more than reason. Most original thinking isn't even verbal. It requires 'a groping experimentation with ideas, governed by intuitive hunches and inspired by the unconscious.' The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. Their imaginations are blocked.

I don't know where I got the idea for 'The Great Thumbprint Drawing Book'; I just told my brain to think of a book, and it did.

It is the mystery of the creative act that something other than our conscious self takes over.

The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off; it's with you all the time.

I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious.

You can't rush inspiration.

But how shall I get ideas? ''Keep your wits open! Observe! Observe! Study! Study! But above all, Think! Think! And when a noble image is indelibly impressed upon the mind - Act!

A writer's brain is like a magician's hat. If you're going to get anything out of it, you have to put something in it first.

Creativity arises out of the state of thoughtless presence in which you are much more awake than when you are engrossed in thinking.

The intellect is not the means of creation, and creation does not take place through the functioning of the intellect; on the contrary, there is creation when the intellect is silent.

I think that we can learn so much if we pay attention to our dreams, whether when we are asleep or in waking dreams. There are connections that are absolutely incredible.

I think it's a big part of being a creative person.

[Mannerism is when] you think you have all these great ideas, and none of them are good at the end of the day. But while you are pursuing those other things subconsciously happen.

When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something.

Sometimes the best ideas I have are in my bathtub or in my bed or in my dreams early in the morning before waking up ... I'm like a TV antennae, I catch it all and do it my way.

There is something more important than logic: imagination

There is no prescribed route to follow to arrive at a new idea. You have to make the intuitive leap.

Creativity is just connecting things.

One of the things meditation gives you is creativity because creativity really comes from the subconscious brain - intuition, imagination - so it's not like you can go there and say, I'm going to go be creative now. Maybe you can, but the real way you get creativity is, you know, you're taking a hot shower and great ideas come to you from the subconscious. Essentially, meditation opens a pipeline between the conscious and the subconscious.

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.

I think it's important to just be in your subconscious mind - at least when you're starting an idea.

Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity.

Knowledge is the stuff from which new ideas are made. Thus, the real key to being creative lies in what you do with your knowledge.

Creativity, as I see it, is the process of putting your imagination to work. It's been defined rather simply as applied imagination. That's not a bad way to think about it.