If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth.

How to defend yourself against a banana

All humour is critical, you know? You make stupid jokes. I mean, stupidity is an infirmity, isn't it?

This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious.

We all operate in two contrasting modes, which might be called open and closed. The open mode is more relaxed, more receptive, more exploratory, more democratic, more playful and more humorous. The closed mode is the tighter, more rigid, more hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned. Most people, unfortunately spend most of their time in the closed mode.

We don't know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops.

I don't want to have to start being unselfish again. The great thing about being on your own is you do what you damned well like.