Creation Quote by David Jacob Knight
““Where do you get your stories?" the interviewer asked. It was a typical question. Ben had answered it himself once. He believed that writers gathered sensory data from dreams and experiences, and then in the imagination all that information stirred up like celestial dust into giant pillars of creation, where all that data bonded together into characters, settings, an entire universe. Fleischer, however, believed that stories came from a much different place. He believed that all good wrtiers were simply tools for a greater force. "Call it the Muse, call it Gan, call it God, or whatever you want. I personally don't have a name for it. But you know you're in it's grip when the story just flows through you, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. At that point... you're just a pen.””
About This Quote
Source Interview: Unspecified interview with Ben Fleischer, date unknown
Writers draw from personal sensory experiences and a transcendent source that channels stories through them.
In simple terms: Stories arise from dreams, experiences, and a mysterious creative force.
Key Takeaway
Tap both observation and intuition when crafting narratives.
Themes
creativity
inspiration
craft
Mood
reflective
inquisitive
Type
philosophical
inspirational
When to use this quote
- novel writing
- screenwriting
- teaching creative writing
- personal reflection
Key Concepts
psychology
transcendence
storytelling
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you balance personal experience with the feeling of being “possessed” by a muse?
- Can you identify moments when a story felt forced versus effortless?
A Different Perspective
Some may argue that discipline, not mystery, is the primary driver of storytelling.
![“Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with so extraordinary a series of gradations as this [step by step, from humans to apes to monkeys to lemurs] - leading us insensibly from the crown and summit of the animal creation down to creatures, from which there is but a step, as it seems, to the…” quote by Thomas Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f0b/thomas-huxley-1183_animal_perhaps-no-order-of-mammals-presents-us_3051.jpg)
