It took, for me, a long time to develop this idea of what to do on the radio. But from the beginning of my time in radio, I had pretty non-traditional tasks.
Ira GlassRead
I wish somebody had given me the news that ideas don't just fall on your head like fairy dust. You have to treat that like a job. You have to spend hours each day, where you're just like, 'This is the part of the day when I'm looking for an idea.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
Ideas require dedicated time and effort to cultivate, rather than coming spontaneously.
Ira Glass emphasizes the importance of actively seeking and nurturing ideas instead of waiting for them to come naturally. He suggests that creativity is a disciplined pursuit requiring consistent hours of focused effort, similar to a job.
Themes
IdeasCreativityDedicationHard WorkEffort
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speech about the creative process in a workshop.
More from Ira Glass
All quotes →At some point, all comics have to go out and be retail salesmen doing door-to-door. And this idea of somebody who totally knows their craft having to get up for free in front of a crowd to work out some stuff they're thinking in their head, still, after as much success as you can get, is really interesting.
Ira GlassRead
I think good radio often uses the techniques of fiction: characters, scenes, a big urgent emotional question. And as in the best fiction, tone counts for a lot.
Ira GlassRead
It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.
Ira GlassRead
It's hard to make something that's interesting. It's really, really hard. It's like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that's written or anything that's created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity... So what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is such an act of will.
Ira GlassRead
I wish that someone had said to me that it's normal to feel lost for a little while.
Ira GlassRead
Similar quotes
My description of wisdom has nothing to do with benevolence and righteousness, it is to do with being wise in one's own virtue, nothing more. My description of being has nothing to do with benevolence and righteousness, it is that one should be led by one's innate nature, nothing more.
ZhuangziRead
Think of these things, whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.
Benjamin FranklinRead
At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door and say,—'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.
Brennan ManningRead
Sir Isaac Newton was asked how he discovered the law of gravity. He replied, "By thinking about it all the time.
Isaac NewtonRead
If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.
Robert SoutheyRead