“People who grew up before the blogosphere, I just think that your brain is wired differently. I feel like in some ways my sensibility is aligned with people twenty years older than me than somebody six years younger. Because there was a sort of cutoff.” PeopleThinkingWayFeelsYearsBrainGrewSixGrew UpTwentiesSensibility Author:Meghan Daum
“Everything is super personal. Basically all of the songs are 'this is my life and what I feel about it.' That's how my brain works and thinks about things. It's really strange because I never really think about what I want to write about - it sort of just comes out. I literally say whatever is in my brain.” ThinkingWantFeelsWritingSongBrainStrange Author:Elena Tonra
“I am a serial monogamist of sorts, and have been with my girlfriend for almost four years. In imagining my brain back to worlds where I might be around someone other sexed in that way and not know them that well, speaking out loud almost seems like requiring of demon language, or money spurting.” KnowsWorldWayYearsWellsHas BeensSeemsMightLanguageBrainFourLoudGirlfriendDemonFour YearsMy GirlfriendSerialsSpeaking Out Author:Blake Butler
“I definitely feel that my brain works differently, and words come out differently, if I have a pencil in my hand, rather than if I have a keyboard.” IfsFeelsHandsBrainPencilsKeyboards Author:Lily King
“For some reason when I decide to pursue something, I never have any fear that it won't happen. I think it's just ingrained in my brain. Which I guess is a great advantage.” ThinkingReasonHappensBrainAdvantagePursue Author:Kelly Blatz
“I definitely learned never to fall in love in high school because it just takes over your brain. We were so psychotic for each other that I didn't care about anything else. It was too much. Relationships are important, but stay focused on all the things that are important. Figure out what you want.” WantImportantCareSchoolFallBrainToo MuchFiguresHigh SchoolFalling In LoveFocusedWhat You WantOver YouStay FocusedPsychotic Author:Daren Kagasoff
“So many of my memories are generated by and organized around food: what I ate, what people cooked, what I cooked, what I ordered in a restaurant. My mental palate is also inextricably intertwined with the verbal part of my brain. Food, words, memories all twist together, so it was the obvious way to structure my life. Each memory of food opened up an entire scene for me, it was the key that unlocked everything.” PeopleWayTogetherMemoriesBrainKeysSceneStructureObviousOrganizedRestaurantsTwistsPalateIntertwined Author:Kate Christensen
“When you're sixteen and struggling to forge an identity out of a morass of hormones and daydreams, remarks like that cut a deep groove in the brain. I trace the ongoing, victorious-feeling semi-starvation of my twenties directly back to adolescence - as a way of showing those assholes that I could control my appetites... Which is so sad, in retrospect, because of course no one cared.” WayFeelingsCoursesBrainStruggleCuttingIdentityTwentiesAppetiteAdolescenceOngoingRemarksStarvationDaydreamingSixteenHormonesRetrospectGrooveSo SadNo One Cares Author:Kate Christensen
“The radical is simply being given more room in the mainstream. And I think young people - I'm talking about the very young millennials - they are bored by so much so fast and have such fast big brains, that they won't digest lazy uninteresting work in the way my generation might have. This is a great opportunity for those on the fringe to be less on the fringe perhaps.” PeopleThinkingWayBigsMightYoungOpportunityGivenRoomsBrainTalkingGenerationsRadicalBoredLazyMainstreamFringeMy GenerationGreat OpportunityMillennials Author:Porochista Khakpour
“I'd go to conference after conference and it would essentially be the talking points. Either pro or con. It's amazing how polarized the tech conversation is. There's also this neurological fixation, the incessant wondering what the Internet's doing to our brain: "Does it make us stupid, does it make us distracted?" And then the other guys say, "No, it's making us smarter than ever, and better than ever, and more connected." And it's like, where is the economic and social context? Why is that rarely considered?” DoeGuySocialBrainTalkingWonderEconomicStupidInternetConversationConnectedSmarterConferencesDistractedOther GuysIncessantFixation Author:Astra Taylor
“But what I realized when I was looking back at them was that no matter how different they are, they're still coming from me, and they're still coming from my brain and my set of obsessions. I think that no matter how different I tried to make them, there were just these certain questions that I just kept circling back to as I was writing. I think they were the ones I was really swept up in in that decade.” ThinkingWritingStillsDifferentMatterCertainBrainDecadesI RealizedObsessionLooking Back Author:Molly Antopol
“The first thing you ought to do is verify what I present. Just because I say it doesn't make it true. So check it out, see what looks correct, what looks wrong, look at other material which wasn't discussed, figure out what the truth really is. That's what you've got a brain for.” FirstsLooksBrainFiguresMaterialsOughtChecksVerify Author:Noam Chomsky
“I think I'd like to be best friends with Björk, because I'd like to pick her brain a lot all the time and just have weird times together.” ThinkingTogetherBrainPicksTime Together Author:Ellie Goulding
“A lot of my ideas come from McNally Jackson bookstore. One of my favorite things to do is just go there and look through architecture books and interior design books. Something about the aesthetics of space and beautiful images works with my brain.” LooksBookIdeasBeautifulSpaceBrainDesignMy FavoriteArchitectureThings To DoInteriorsAestheticsBookstoresFavorites ThingsInterior DesignBeautiful Images Author:St. Lucia
“Most kids who grow up in Alaska and spend a fair degree of time in the wilderness, grow up being pretty self-reliant. You have to be, in order to survive all the animals and cliffs and crevasses and rapids - at some point, your brain has to kick [out of] that childish daydream world and start making I-want-to-live decisions.” WorldWantSelfKidsOrderGrowsDecisionAnimalBrainGrowing UpDegreesFairsKicksWildernessRapidsCliffsDaydreamingAlaskaSelf ReliantBeing Pretty Author:Leigh Newman
“Dopamine makes up less than one percent of the brain's neurotransmitters. It's a small portion. Dopamine is released when people are happy, angry, stressed. So it's really hard to call this specific neurotransmitter "the pleasure neurotransmitter."” PeopleHardPleasureBrainPercentAngryPortionsStressedDopamineNeurotransmitters Author:Carl Hart
“Much of the early work focused on dopamine and we were really looking for rewarding sorts of effects and sure enough, we only found that. But you can destroy the main dopamine-producing structures of the brain and you can still get an animal to self-administer drugs like cocaine.” StillsSelfEnoughFoundAnimalBrainEffectsDrugStructureFocusedCocaineDopamineEarly Work Author:Carl Hart
“Our ability to study the brain has been limited because of our tools and our tools have only allowed us to look at one neurotransmitter and we haven't looked so much into co-localization and co-release of transmitters. Our thinking is hampered by our tools.” ThinkingLooksHas BeensAbilityBrainStudyHavensToolsReleaseNeurotransmitters Author:Carl Hart
“Frank [Zappa] said he probably would have been a major criminal, given his brain power and his attention to detail, had he not been a composer. But being a composer is not something you can't help.” Has BeensSaidHelpingGivenAttentionBrainMajorsDetailsCriminalsComposerFrankAttention To DetailBrain PowerZappa Author:Gail Zappa
“I don't know what to say about Asians. I think everyone is "racist," to differing degrees, in that everyone's brain will automatically associate information with other information, based on the information they are looking at (for example skin color, bone structure), but I think focusing on race in any manner that isn't neutral or self-aware probably increases racism.” ThinkingKnowsSelfRaceBrainInformationExampleColorDegreesRacismSkinsIncreaseStructureBonesRacistAssociatesSkin Color Author:Tao Lin
“You have to be willing to get back on that horse and try it again if the mood strikes. That was one of the great pieces of wisdom that I got early on in my career in terms of being blocked. If you get to a creative roadblock, you can sit there and rack your brain.” IfsTryingTermBrainCareersCreativePiecesWillingHorseStrikesMoodGet BackBlockedRacksRoadblock Author:Dave Koz
“I'm a horrible historian. My memory is bad. I read things and then I forget them. I can't understand dates and I can't measure time. Time is confusing to me. That's why I do a lot of manipulations of time in my books, in part because an orderly time is physically difficult for me to conceive of in my brain.” I CanBookDifficultMemoriesForgetBrainHorribleManipulationHistorianConfusingOrderly Author:Lucy Corin
“My brain's not sharp enough to come up with a witty comment.” EnoughBrainCome UpWittyComment Author:Chris Pine
“I saved letters from my boss. There are things in there that are directly transcribed. I was so glad I did that. Sometimes when I was writing the book I wondered if some little writer hobbit part of my brain was back there puppeteering that action. But it really never, on any conscious level, occurred to me that I would write about it. I will say, I thought probably some day there would be an ancillary character in some novel - not in the one I was currently writing - that would be a dominatrix or something.” IfsWritingLittlesBookSometimesCharacterWould BeActionLevelsBrainNovelConsciousLettersSavedGladBoss Author:Melissa Febos
“I never think about anything in my brain. I think in very small repetitive circles inside my own brain. That's why I'm a writer. It's the only way I get any sort of conclusion or understanding about anything.” ThinkingWayUnderstandingMy OwnBrainCirclesConclusionRepetitive Author:Melissa Febos
“Do not take the creative process personally. At every stage, you are going to feel like it's all falling apart, like the golden egg of truth in your brain is not manifesting on the page or on set or in the edit. But that panic, that loss, that pain - that is the process of creation. Let it hurt, drink some coffee and keep going.” FeelsPainFallProcessHurtLossBrainCreativeStageCreationDrinkPagesCoffeeGoldenEggsKeep GoingManifestPanicCreative ProcessIt HurtsFalling ApartEditsGolden Eggs Author:Jessie Kahnweiler
“I studied Hitchcock and Josef von Sternberg under Richard Dillard at Hollins, and that year under his tutelage just completely rewired my brain. Both directors combine moral seriousness with great artistry and, certainly in Hitchcock's case, an enormous respect for plot, for its power to enthrall and delight.” YearsBrainMoralCasesDirectorsDelightEnormousPlotGreat ArtSeriousnessGreat ArtistArtistryHitchcockTutelage Author:Adam Ross
“If I'm not writing about myself, then I sit down with people I really dig writing with and throw 'em out and see if something sticks. Their brain plus mine hopefully will make something interesting and cool and it will just snowball and we'll have a unique song by the end of it.” PeopleIfsWritingEndsSongInterestingBrainMinesUniqueSticksHopefullyEmsPlusSomething InterestingSnowball Author:Kacey Musgraves
“If there's a strong melodic thing somewhere, whether that's in a vocal or in a guitar part or a sample. Something that sticks in your brain, that seems to be something that works.” IfsSeemsStrongBrainSticksGuitarVocalSample Author:Lauren Mayberry
“No matter how many people try, no matter how many fancy songwriters in Los Angeles try to break it down to a formula... to an extent, there isn't a science to writing great songs, I suppose. For me, it's always about melody - it doesn't matter what genre of music you're writing, if there's a strong melodic thing somewhere, whether that's in a vocal or in a guitar part or a sample. Something that sticks in your brain, that seems to be something that works.” PeopleIfsWritingTryingMatterSeemsSongStrongBrainBreakSticksGuitarGenreFancyLos AngelesMelodyFormulasSongwritersVocalSampleGenres Of Music Author:Lauren Mayberry
“I've got so much in my brain and I want to change the way we think sometimes.” ThinkingWayWantSometimesBrain Author:ASAP Rocky
“There was a loneliness because kids my age had video games, tennis. They traveled. They had beautiful clothes. I was wearing my sisters' old clothes that were adjusted on me, because we didn't have money to buy clothes. So that really made me go deep inside on my heart, because the only things I could have with me were my heart and my brain.” HeartMadeKidsAgeBeautifulGamesBrainLonelinessMy HeartClothesVideoTennisMy SisterTraveledDeep InsideOld ClothesBeautiful Clothes Author:Riccardo Tisci
“When I was far away, when I prayed every night, I felt I was very near with my heart, with my brain, to my sisters and my mom.” HeartNightFeltBrainMomMy HeartMy MomMy SisterEvery NightFar Away Author:Riccardo Tisci
“There is also a particular area of sleep called slow-wave sleep. I immediately liked this idea. It turns out this part of sleep is where the brain basically gets into step with itself and gets into this one single phase of these relatively slow brain waves - around 10 Hz or so - and the whole brain 'fires all at once'. This is a brilliant bit of sleep where we consolidate memory and learning, and memory is one of my obsessions really.” IdeasWholeTurnsBitsMemoriesSleepBrainStepsFireParticularAreasWaveBrilliantObsessionPhases Author:Max Richter
“Music is very transporting. I'll hear a song for the first time and I rarely listen to the lyrics. I picture that song playing as a soundtrack to a movie, or even just in the background of someone's life. This all sounds weird, but I have an active imagination, and music opens the floodgates of that area of my brain.” FirstsSongSoundImaginationBrainMusic IsFirst TimeAreasActiveBackgroundsSoundtracks Author:Josh McDermitt
“Replacing it with a thought. I sometimes think, "What the hell. I have four working limbs right now. I'm winning just to even have the privilege of this experience!" Steering my brain onto this track of thought begins the process of being grateful for the lesson and returns my mind to a more peaceful place.” ThinkingMindSometimesWinningProcessBrainHellFourReturnLessonsRight NowGratefulPrivilegeTrackPeacefulBe GratefulLimbsSteeringPeaceful Places Author:Graham Shiels
“The Alzheimer's Association is what I am passionate about. My grandfather had it. My mom has it. It's a horrible disease, and with our aging population, it's a growing problem. It's terrible to lose your brain and your power to be conscious or in the moment.” MomentsProblemLosesBrainGrowingMomTerribleDiseaseConsciousAgingPassionatePopulationMy MomHorribleAssociationGrandfatherMy GrandfatherAlzheimerAlzheimer'sAging Population Author:Graham Shiels
“I love to be by the ocean and have always done my best thinking by the sea. The ebb and flow is like a brain massage and very calming. I am also inspired by seeing kindness in others. It touches me and reminds me to be kind as well.” ThinkingWellsKindDoneBrainKindnessSeeingSeaOceanFlowInspiredBe KindMassageCalmingTouch MeEbb And Flow Author:Roma Downey
“As someone who makes his living as an actor, my routine varies almost every day. There are weeks I'm working and weeks I'm not. People think it must be great to have all that time off, but you'd be surprised how quickly that grass would become greener. The idle brain is the devil's playground.” PeopleThinkingActorsBrainWeekDevilGrassRoutineIdleVaryPlaygroundsTime OffGreener Author:Eric Lange
“I'm a morning "spinner." That's usually when my brain is thinking too much and I don't necessarily see things positively. So I sit myself down and remember that I'm making it up. I believe we are creating in every moment - making up our reality, so to speak - so when anything gets chaotic or I feel spun out, I remind myself that everything is an interpretation. I can look at it differently and make it work for me in a more positive light.” ThinkingFeelsBelieveLooksI CanMomentsRealityLightRememberSpeakI BelieveBrainMorningToo MuchCreatingDown AndInterpretationPositivelyChaoticMaking UpSpunThinking Too MuchSpinner Author:Dash Mihok
“I would be so curious to wire my brain up and see what's occurring when I act, because a performance is such a heightened state. I've always found that with doing theatre especially. It's so hard to come down.” HardStatesWould BeFoundBrainPerformancesTheatreCuriousWire Author:Luke Kirby
“Some people can work amid chaos or conversations, and some can't - and while there's no doubt an element of brain wiring to it, there's also the possibility of acquiring skills that improve your focus.” PeopleBrainDoubtFocusPossibilitySkillsConversationElementsChaosNo DoubtWiring Author:Carolyn Hax
“It's probably good for your body and brain to get moving occasionally.” BodyMovingBrainYour BodyGet Moving Author:Carolyn Hax
“Anytime you have to get intimate on camera, it's always a little interesting. You have to trick your brain almost, so that you don't get stage fright or get too much in your head where you're super uncomfortable.” LittlesInterestingBrainToo MuchStageCamerasTricksUncomfortableIntimateFrightStage Fright Author:Evan Rachel Wood
“We always keep things very, very simple. We can make a respectable living playing a smaller room that somebody else couldn't, because they're spending a lot of money. If we can't get a show up and deliver with what we almost intrinsically have in our brains and our pockets, then I don't really want to do it.” IfsWantShowsSimpleRoomsBrainSpendingPocketsLots Of MoneyRespectableSpending A Lot Of Money Author:Will Oldham
“You can build a brain the size of a room, theoretically. You could also build a silicone based life form and it could be sentient. There's no limit to the height that you can reach in terms of design once we figure out how to design things, theoretically.” FormTermRoomsBrainFiguresDesignLimitsSizeHeight Author:Neill Blomkamp
“A lot of the time when you're doing your own work, it's all in your own head, which can be frustrating if you're prepping for something, especially an audition where it's all in your brain and you go in and no one else has seen it and you don't really know how it fits.” IfsKnowsBrainKnow HowFitWorking ItAuditionsFrustrating Author:Ed Speleers
“I can be a bit of a science geek. I tend more towards reading about brain science, neuroscience. I was an English major, so I love discussing possibilities and alternate theories. Aside from the science aspect of it, the philosophical possibilities are so interesting.” I CanReadingBitsInterestingBrainPossibilityTheoryMajorsAspectPhilosophicalNeuroscienceGeekDiscussingEnglish MajorBrain Science Author:William Mapother
“Brain surgery is not like politics and vice versa.” BrainVicesSurgeryVice VersaBrain Surgery Author:Christopher Michael Cillizza
“I mean, I think everybody should probably approach a film that it's another unwanted thing. That's going to be seared onto my brain for the rest of my life. Thank you for that.” ThinkingShouldMeanFilmBrainApproachUnwanted Author:Johnny Depp