When I start on a book, I have been thinking about it and making occasional notes for some time... So I have lots of theme, locale, subjects and technical ideas... I don't worry about long periods of not doing anything. I know my subconscious is busy.
Interpretation
Creativity often requires patience, and the subconscious plays a vital role in the process.
This quote emphasizes the importance of the subconscious mind in the creative process. Arthur C. Clarke suggests that even during periods of inactivity, ideas and themes are being developed beneath the surface. He highlights the significance of preparation and thought that occurs before actively writing, suggesting that creativity is not just about immediate action but also about allowing ideas to simmer over time.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a workshop about creative writing to emphasize the value of patience in the creative process.
Nowhere in space will we rest our eyes upon the familiar shapes of trees and plants, or any of the animals that share our world. Whatsoever life we meet will be as strange and alien as the nightmare creatures of the ocean abyss, or of the insect empire whose horrors are normally hidden from us by their microscopic scale.
As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'.
Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.
It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.
Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.
As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.
If you can't imitate him, don't copy him.
The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that counts.
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