NITCH

Photo of Brian Eno

Brian Eno // "I often think that I don’t have a single new idea in my head. But the big mistake is to just wait for inspiration to happen. It won’t come looking for you. You have to start doing something: you have to build a trap to catch it. I like to do that by starting the very mundane process of tidying my studio. It may seem like it has nothing to do with the creative job in hand but I think tidying up is a form of daydreaming, and what you’re really doing is tidying your mind. It’s a kind of mental preparation. It’s a way of getting your mind in place to notice something. And that’s what being creative is really: it’s noticing when something interesting is starting to happen."

Photo of Björk

Björk // "I’m not trying to repeat the sagas. I make my own stories and I’m very obsessed with not being nostalgic, because I think that 90 percent of the world is too nostalgic. They don’t have the courage to face the present and make stories that are relevant today, about life today... I want people to do more of that."

Photo of James Baldwin

James Baldwin // "The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it."

Photo of Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki // "We have a word for that in Japanese. It’s called ma. Emptiness. It’s there intentionally. (claps hands) The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness. But if you take a moment, then the tension building…can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension all the time you just get numb… What really matters is the underlying emotions…that you never let go of those."

Photo of Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain // "Be a fool. For love. For yourself. What you think might possibly make you happy…even for a little while…whatever the cost or good sense might dictate."

Photo of Peter Tosh

Peter Tosh // "Everyone’s trying to reach the top. Tell me how far is it from the bottom."

Photo of Nina Simone

Nina Simone // "I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear."

Photo of Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall // "We are the most intellectual creature that has ever walked the planet. But I carefully say intellectual rather than intelligent because if we were intelligent, we would be caring for our only home."

Photo of David Bowie

David Bowie // "I suspect that dreams are an integral part of existence, with far more use for us than we’ve made of them... The fine line between the dream state and reality is at times, for me, quite grey."

Photo of Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley // "It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly... Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them...throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you...trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly...on tiptoes and no luggage...completely unencumbered."

Photo of Carl Jung

Carl Jung // "Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got dirty through too much civilization take a walk in the woods, or a bath in the sea. Entering the unconscious, entering yourself through dreams, is touching nature from the inside and this is the same thing, things are put right again."

Photo of Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard // "He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch."