Douglas Preston Quotes

I can see there's a connection between not following normal thinking and doing creative thinking. I wouldn't have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally.

Sometimes a problem will seem completely insurmountable. Then someone comes up with a simple new idea, or just a rearrangement of old ideas, that completely eliminates it.

I just try to go outside the box. In fact, I go outside the box so much I go... 'What box!'

You have to think outside the box.

You have to stand outside the box to see how the box can be re-designed.

Enterprise is first creativity. You need creativity to see what's out there and shape it to your advantage. You need creativity to look at the world a little differently. You need creativity to take a different approach, to be different.

I always think of the craziest idea first and then work backwards, because you never know: that person that you think would never return your call might be sitting at home with nothing to do.

I don't think in a box. I think in a sphere.

Creativity is not talent but attitude.

When trying to innovate, most people stop after 10-15 possibilities, failing to recognize that their first ideas are usually the most obvious ones.

I apply the term 'creativity' broadly... it's problem solving. We are all faced with problems, and we have to address them and think of something new, and that's where creativity comes in.

Hacking involves a different way of looking at problems that no one's thought of.

I don't think of myself as a maverick at all. Quite the opposite - I really think of myself as quite conventional but dispersed over unusual territory.

I've always known that I have a different mentality. I can move in different ways and that's for people to realize.

Madness in method, that's genius

We never have that thought! The whole object is to bite off more than you can chew. John [Du Prez] always says, Eric thinks of something completely insane and insists we go in that direction. It's the correct way to look at things and the correct place to start, I think.

Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box

The best way to get people to think outside the box is not to create the box in the first place.

Only creativity can see past problems to find solutions. This holds true for every area of life.

Every problem has a creative solution.

What makes things exciting in life is to overcome your challenges and get creative and think outside of the box.

Some of the best inventive moments are born out of 'wrong thinking'. Most people start with the right way so they all follow the same path. The wrong way will lead to mistakes from which you can learn and create new discoveries-the kind of original ideas that come to life when we dare to be different, keep an open mind, and have no fear of failure.

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical

All the problems sitting there are an invitation for you to be creative, make use of your skills and resources and find a solution.

You can never solve a problem on the same level as the problem.