The question I get asked most often, when meeting someone for the first time, is ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ I know my answer is disappointing. I don’t know where my ideas come from, I just get them, they fly into my head. I do stuff to help: I stimulate my imagination by reading, writing, I go to the theatre, to museums, I go for walks, I watch documentaries, I listen and observe. And I think. I agree with John Steinbeck [below].
[photo: Patricia Ann McNair]
“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”
‘The Grapes of Wrath’ by John Steinbeck [UK: Penguin]
See these other famous people, reading & writing:-
John Updike
George Orwell
Iris Murdoch
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Famous writers, writing… #author John Steinbeck http://wp.me/p5gEM4-AU via @SandraDanby
Excellent quote and I love your elaboration on it!
My head is so full of ideas that some days I need a pensieve! SD
Ha, good quote.
Yes, my ideas are definitely fast rabbits! SD
in my case, they mostly look similar too! 🙁
Ha, ideas can be little suckers that fly by just out of reach, so tempting, but not fully-formed! SD
precisely. they look so tempting, but the minute you start writing down they fizz away.
That’s writing! 🙂 SD
Sandra, I love Steinbeck, so you had my interest immediately with this quote. It’s a good one – and so are your supporting remarks.
I’d like to take a moment to thank you for the wonderful reviews you write of the books you’ve read. I always enjoy reading them.
Thanks Kate, I absolutely love reading books so I’m pleased that comes across. I know now that I read them as a writer, so I always learn new techniques for telling stories from each author I read. SD