Kary Mullis Quotes

Coincidence is important, the convergence of different ideas.

Sometimes actors' mistakes give me ideas I can use, because mistakes are always sincere, absolutely sincere.

Most of us have one big idea at some point in our lives. That Eureka! moment. It comes to us all in different ways, often by chance of serendipity.

I am always looking for ideas, whether it is in art on the street or in my world travels. It comes to me randomly and unexpectedly.

I consider projects very deeply, but there's always a point in your life where there's a bit of randomity.

All good ideas arrive by chance.

It's very productive scientifically; I often get some very good ideas for my research while hiking.

Some of the best ideas I get seem to happen when I'm doing mindless manual labor or exercise. I'm not sure how that happens, but it leaves me free for remarkable ideas to occur.

Sometimes the best ideas will come in the least inspiring places.

If you track your organization's creativity by the number of brainstorms on your calendar, you're missing out. It's more important to capture those unplanned sparks of inspiration that so often come when we're cooking dinner, taking a shower, or commuting to work.

When I stand up in front of groups of people who agree with me, I know I have to really step my game up because I can't just sort of meet them where they're at; I have to take them somewhere else. They want you to challenge them and have good ideas.

We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.

Above all, it's never blind chance: it's a chance that is always planned, but also always surprising. And I need it in order to carry on, in order to eradicate my mistakes, to destroy what I've worked out wrong, to introduce something different and disruptive. I'm often astonished to find how much better chance is than I am.

A good idea is something like an emotion, you just can't keep it in.

Do as many ideas as possible. The right idea will pick you.

The answer to the question "where do good ideas come from" is always the same, the come from bad ideas. If you come up with 20 bad ideas you get one good one.

Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas

... a good idea always attracts other good ideas.

One of the most difficult tasks of visioneering is distinguishing between good ideas and God ideas.

I'm always open to new stuff. I don't sit and try to figure out what to do, I just wait for an idea to come.

It often feels like a tremendous amount of work is required to get an idea moving forward, like pushing a train uphill. But at a certain point, the thing takes on its own momentum, and takes unexpected turns. So it's that feeling of holding on, rather than pushing it, that is the most exciting thing. It's that need to occasionally bounce off the walls, letting anything happen for any reason, and having nothing to guide you that is the joy.

The person with just one good idea is a thousand times better off than the person with no good ideas.

Really good original ideas are very hard to come up with. Good ideas - easy. Really good, original ideas - it can take months.

Sometimes I think that ideas float through the atmosphere like huge squishy pumpkins, waiting for heads to drop on.

You can't have good ideas unless you have lots of ideas.