"They arose in my mind as 'given'..." - Quote by J R R Tolkien
They arose in my mind as 'given' things, and as they came, separately, so too the links grew. An absorbing, though continually interrupted labour (especially, even apart from the necessities of life, since the mind would wing to the other pole and spread itself on the linguistics): yet always I had the sense of recording what was already 'there', somewhere: not of 'inventing'.
More by J R R Tolkien
“My 'Sam Gamgee' is indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognised as so far superior to myself.”
“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”
“Such bees! Bilbo had never seen anything like them. "If one were to sting me," He thought "I should swell up as big as I am!”
More on Creativity
“I guess I'm just inspired to tell stories.”
“The worst is that the very hardest thinking will not bring thoughts. They must come like good children of God and cry, "Here we are." You expend effort and energy thinking hard. Then, after you have given up, they come sauntering in with their hands in their pockets. If the effort had not been made to open the door, however, who knows when they could have come.”
“Make some sacrifice for your art and you will be repaid, but ask of art to sacrifice herself for you and a bitter disappointment may come to you.”
More on Inspiration
“One of my favourite actors of all time, although he doesn't necessarily play villains, is Peter Lorre.”
“The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.”
“I'm glad . . . that Edison didn't give up on the light bulb. That Luther refused to back down. That Michelangelo kept painting. That Lindbergh kept flying.”