From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Songs are these magnetic creations of words and music, in very short form. A song needs to hit you in less than a minute and sometimes it can be an incredibly solitary, emotional experience where it's just you and the imagined relationship with that singer.
I looked at her and said, 'that's impossible! If I had stolen these pears from you… you would never have seen me!'
Creative process by its nature involves figuring out all the things that don't work on your way to figuring out the things that do. You can't have it both ways…
The only time I ever heard the song was in my head when I wrote it and when we recorded it that night. The next time I heard it was in a room full of strangers dancing to it.
No one wakes up eager to write because it often reveals your shortcomings. It's like staring at your face in a mirror for two hours—after a few minutes, all you see are flaws. Discipline sees me through those self-doubts.
At one point, while working on the rotation routine, I was watching a piece rotate on the screen. It was then that the idea struck me—the game could be played in real-time. That was the very first important 'aha' moment for Tetris.
A designer is a designer, whether you're designing a dress or a toothbrush. The integrity, skill and creativity are all the same.
To me literature was, and still is, an existential need. Books and stories have been that gateway for me. I wanted to find a gate to an 'elsewhere', to another land, a Storyland.
In improvisation on instruments, I feel creation is going a new path with every note, somewhere you haven't been before. You discover things, you're the adventurer in music. That leads to new songs and nice adventures.
You couldn't design a situation more hostile to human learning than a typical school. We learn not to be creative, because everything is about turning us into good factory workers. That's why these systems were created: to make us into factory workers who produce more stuff, more money, more stuff, more money.
Whenever I write a new song with somebody, it feels like the first time. I sometimes feel embarrassed, humiliated, like I don't know what I'm doing until we find a spark. You have to dare to go to this place where, even though you've done it before, it feels like you don't know what you're looking for until you find it.
The antithesis of high performance is micromanagement—dictating every aspect of a task. This approach essentially communicates, 'Leave the thinking to me. Just follow orders, and maybe you'll advance.' It stifles creativity and initiative.