Eric Weiner Quotes

Psychologists call it "defocused attention," where you broaden your horizons, let your mind float and drift a bit. Coffee keeps us sharp and alert. It's great if you're driving at 3 o'clock in the morning. It's not so great if you're trying to come up with the next violin concerto.

When you procrastinate, you're more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.

Having my brain doing different work is helping me a lot in terms of retro-feeding from the other experiences. It makes me feel inspired, looking forward to the projects and wanting to work harder.

A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid or distasteful in itself. He breaks his engagements, leaves his letters unanswered, neglects his family duties incorrigibly, because he is powerless to turn his attention down and back from those more interesting trains of imagery with which his genius constantly occupies his mind.

He who passes not his days in the realm of dreams is the slave of the days.

I don't know where my ideas come from. I will admit, however, that one key ingredient is caffeine. I get a couple cups of coffee into me and weird things just start to happen.

Flood your life with ideas from many sources. Creativity needs to be exercised like a muscle. If you don't use it, you'll lose it!

Curiosity is the key to creativity.

Peter had a genius for imitation; but he lacked true genius, which is creative and makes all from nothing.

Daydream, imagine, and reflect. It’s the source of infinite creativity.

The normal person classifies an object, and then forgets about it. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new possibilities.

Idle dreaming is often of the essence of what we do.

Many of the cognitive enhancement drugs serve to increase focus and concentration. But 'letting your mind wander' is very often an important part of the creative process.

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

I find that stability is good for my creativity.

One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

There's no one way to be creative. Any old way will work.

Genius is eternal patience.

The most creative people have this childlike facility to play.

Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least, for they are thinking out inventions and forming in their minds the perfect idea that they subsequently express with their hands.

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.

The conventional mind is passive - it consumes information and regurgitates it in familiar forms. The dimensional mind is active, transforming everything it digests into something new and original, creating instead of consuming.

My favorite thing about working with Lady Gaga is really just the sheer level of creativity she brings to the table. And she's really one of the most intelligent people I've ever known. Her intelligence is equaled by her heart.