E. L. Doctorow Quotes

When I write an email where I outlined a whole scene, it just came out of my unconscious, it comes from a deeper place. The same thing happens when the actors go, take after take, and just get lost in it. When you're in a house, you don't think about being in the house; you're just there.

If I'm in the middle of a take and I start to think about what I'm doing, I just mess up and I have to stop and so I find that for me, you really need to trust your instinct.

None of my books has been ever in my head; after they're finished, they go. It's like being a sort of medium; you just grab it when it's there then just release it when it's time to go. There's a lot of instinct, not planning.

When I feel like I'm doing my best work, there is a bit of a freedom, a bit of flight that you're not so much losing yourself but you're sort of in the zone.

As soon as I finish meditating, I get a beautiful feeling of expanded consciousness. When I'm in this headspace I can make so much progress in my writing.

I try to manage my day by my circadian rhythms because the creativity is such an elusive thing, and I could easily just stomp over it doing my administrative stuff.

Weirdly, often the more I write, the more ideas I have.

For a long time, I would write without music, because I thought it was distracting until I appreciated that it actually unlocks a certain unconscious productivity vault in my mind.

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

When I model I pretty much go blank. You can't think too much or it doesn't work.

I'm from the middle of nowhere in Somerset, and if I have too much stimulus or chaos, then I tend to not be as creative.

What could be more exciting when the writing is going well and things are falling into place? It's just like riding a fabulous wave for a surfer. There's no better place to be.

Inspiration is some mysterious blessing which happens when the wheels are turning smoothly.

Melody is pure intuition. I don't use any thinking brain when I do that. That's totally in the zone.

Sometimes you just do things and let your natural self become a part of what you're doing.

I'm not very good at writing songs when I have a lot of clutter in my mind.

The best stuff - the most interesting stuff - usually happens when I allow myself to be in the moment and working from that space.

A lot of times, my best games are when I'm not even thinking.

Never listen to music when you're trying go come up with a Big Idea.

When we sit down to work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.

When I feel difficulty coming on, I switch to another book I'm writing. When I get back to the problem, my unconscious has solved it.

Great genius you already have. The super conscious mind is invariably triggered by definition, and by decisiveness.

Where the heart is the mind works best.

When the work takes over, then the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere. When the work takes over, then the artist listens.

When I sit down at my writing desk, time seems to vanish. I think it's a wonderful way to spend one's life.