Creativity is a spark. It can be excruciating when we're rubbing two rocks together and getting nothing. And it can be intensely satisfying when the flame catches and a new idea sweeps around the world.

We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything. Several new science papers suggest that getting away is an essential habit of effective thinking. When we escape from the place we spend most of our time, the mind is suddenly made aware of all those errant ideas we'd previously suppressed. We start thinking about obscure possibilitiebsthat never would have occurred to us if we'd stayed home.

If you're trying to be more creative, one of the most important things you can do is increase the volume and diversity of the information to which you are exposed.

there simply is no way to describe the past without lying. Our memories are not like fiction. They are fiction.

Creativity is not a trait that we inherit in our genes or a blessing bestowed by the angels. It's a skill.

A lie told well is just as good as the truth.

Design is the conscious imposition of meaningful order.