Monday, April 26, 2010

Imagination is a Place

No, no, no, no, no, no. You don’t run short of imagination. You can get jaded, myopic and maybe sluggish. But imagination is...  it’s more a place actually, or a lab. Stories are infinite. You help yourself to as much as you want. You. Your kid. The human mud of your marriage. It’s all material. For that to run dry — it’s unthinkable. It would be like a fish worrying about water when it’s in the sea. The world has infinite plots for me.
Great quote from Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell who is interviewed by Patricia Nichol on The Times website and talks about why he enjoys anonymity. His latest work is a historical novel set in feudal Japan.

4 comments:

Oxymoron said...

Interesting, Sharon. I am doing some research on the subjects of talent, creativity, inspiration, etc. Perhaps I can interview you one day? :)

bibliobibuli said...

i'm looking for inspiration under every stone ...

but actually if you follow the tag "where do stories come from" you will find some other good examples of where writers have got their material from

KayKay said...

If his new book has even half the imagination and dazzling narrative audacity of Cloud Atlas, I'm grabbing it the first day it hits the shelves!

Oxymoron said...

You might find this interesting: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/the-science-of-genius-a-qa-with-author-david-shenk/