Three Quarters of Your Mind

A while back, I was lucky enough to sit down with John Perry Barlow for an interview. The most memorable part of our conversation revolved around the nature of creativity.

Speaking as somebody who has been pretty creative, what you really need is something that takes over about three quarters of your mind in a meaningless way. Driving a tractor helped me to write songs for example. Driving a car long distance. Digging a ditch. Any one of those things doesn’t require a lot of thinking to do and leaves the other part of the mind just roaming around, spitting out stuff that is allowed to come through. Real creativity is a gift that comes from heaven knows what holy place. It comes out strictly because you are somehow able to get out of your own way.”

John Perry Barlow



Date
May 10, 2016