Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction.

You won't understand anything about imagination until you realise that it's not about making things up, it's about perception.

You used to be optimistic. You used to think that whatever we did would turn out well. Even after we came back from the north, you used to think that. Now you're cautious, you're anxious… You're pessimistic."She knew he was right, but it wasn't right that he should speak to her accusingly, as if it was something to blame her for."I used to be young," was all she could find to say.

We need to imagine as well as measure.

You won’t understand anything about the imagination until you realise that it’s not about making things up, it’s about perception.

Had reason ever created a poem, or a symphony, or a painting? If rationality can’t see things like the secret commonwealth, it’s because rationality’s vision is limited. The secret commonwealth is there. We can’t see it with rationality any more than we can weigh something with a microscope: it’s the wrong sort of instrument. We need to imagine as well as measure ...

You're in a world full of color and you want to see it in black and white.