Juan Felipe Herrera Quotes

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.

Most people have their best ideas when they take their minds away from problems they're trying to solve.

Peace of mind for five minutes, that's what I crave.

Although even when I am being idle I have plenty of food for thought both early and late - thoughts both about and not about art.

I find the presence of the sea quite inspiring, and sometimes I do just get out and walk around and take in the sea breeze to try and clear my mind.

Embrace the faff. Stare out of the window. Bend paperclips. Stand in the middle of the room trying to remember what you came downstairs for. Pace. Drum your fingertips. Move papers around. Hum. Look at the garden.

I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.

After a day's fishing, I'll know the solution to something or have good ideas that were not accessible before.

I get a lot of ideas sitting in the living room staring at the walls or lying in bed thinking about things.

Doing something that's physical but not necessarily mentally taxing - for me, it frees me up creatively.

For me, the creative process, first of all, requires a good nine hours of sleep a night. Second, it must not be pushed by the need to produce practical applications.

I think one of the most important things for creativity is boredom.

And it’s only by going nowhere - by sitting still or letting my mind relax - that I find that the thoughts that come to me unbidden are far fresher and more imaginative than the ones I consciously seek out.

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.

Everybody's got creativity. You just get more of it [when you meditate].

There are a lot of people who are unable to take a break to clear their minds. I imagine they are the ones who need it the most.

Any one thing can get in the way of you and your brain being comfortable and being inspired. It's the difference between a really big song and a song that never existed.

Sometimes when I'm just really relaxed, that's also a creative time for me, because that's when my mind is more open because I'm not worried or thinking or being very analytical.

I go to the Korean spa when the kids go to bed. It's like I turn my brain off.

There comes a time when you've toured a ton, and a time to be inspired again. Listen to awesome jazz records that are mellow with no words, and just sit there and read a book, or space out on your couch. And eventually, all that inspiration comes.

'Time in a Tree' is a song about when you find yourself in a busy state of mind, which I often find myself in. Sometimes it can feel like you can't physically get out of it, or you can't mentally or physically bring yourself out of that... it's like having traffic in your brain.

But how entirely I live in my imagination; how completely depend upon spurts of thought, coming as I walk, as I sit; things churning up in my mind and so making a perpetual pageant, which is to be my happiness.

Staring up at the sky on a bright, sunny day makes me dream and gives me ideas.

I long for a kind of quiet where I can just drift and dream. I always say getting inspiration is like fishing. If you're quiet and sitting there and you have the right bait, you're going to catch a fish eventually. Ideas are sort of like that. You never know when they're going to hit you.

It's helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.