Like most very good ideas, the concept for this book is dangerously simple:  gather together a range of diverse thinkers commenting on the creative process.  There is an endless supply of material from the famously creative of the past, and how many of the living would turn down the chance to be included in a volume with Stravinsky, Foucault and Fellini?  A sure-fire winner, right?
            Well yes, this book is a winner.  But I’m certain it wasn’t as easy to put together as it sounds.  The first and biggest danger would be the expectations of the reader.  Immediately upon understanding the concept, I had a rough idea of who my own collection would include.  I imagine the same thing happens to most readers.  We see Ingmar Bergman’s name on the cover and think, “what about Woody Allen?  Perhaps Jack Nicholson should be given Laurence Olivier’s space?  Mary Shelly is interesting, but where’s Isaac Isamov?”  In other words, the concept leaves lots of room for nitpicking, and will tend to attract the sorts of readers who will have some definite ideas about who should and shouldn’t be included in this pantheon of creative genius. 
I am glad to report that even the most exacting reader will find much to savor and be surprised by in this collection.  It is peopled by both the very famous and the relatively obscure.  Poets, musicians, film-makers, novelists, dancers, scientists, and an advertising executive are among those who pass on some good advice in these pages.  Ever wondered what was going through the mind of Tchaikovsky or Stravinsky while they were composing?  No?  Well how about Frank Zappa and Brian Eno then?  Do your tastes run to the sublime (Leonardo da Vinci, Carl Jung) or to the, shall we say, less exalted (Henry Miller, Karen Finley)?  Either way, you will find much of interest.
You will also find contributions by people you’ve never heard of before; at least I did.  I was glad to see Nobel Prize-winning, rebel-without-a-laboratory, Kary Mullis pontificating on his approach to science.  The editors happened to include one of my favorite essayists, Annie Dillard, and they chose exactly the passage I would have, had I been asked.