There is an interesting theme of staying true to a center or core of a story which is broadly similar to David Lynch's staying true to the original idea. The difference may be that Lynch is staying true to his own original idea which started the process whereas Coppola is distilling out a core from an original source and then focusing on that rather than having Puzo's own original core.
Which core is the "true" one?
I just try to catch ideas—andsometimes I fall in love with one and then I know what I want to do. Ithas nothing to do with money; just with translating that idea.
You become familiar with the process of catching an idea andtranslating that idea. You understand the tools and the lighting. Youunderstand the whole process—you’ve been through it before.
He's talking about movie making, but it applies to almost anything.
If you don’t have a setup, there are many times when you get theinspiration, the idea, but you have no tools, no place to put ittogether. And the idea just sits there and festers. Over time, it will goaway. You didn’t fulfill it—and that’s just a heartache.
Now, you don’t use meditation to catch ideas. You’re expandingthe container, and you come out very refreshed, filled with energy,and raring to go out and catch ideas afterward.
You’ve got to be able to catch ideas.
You can catch ideas at a deeper level. And creativity really flows. Itmakes life more like a fantastic game.
Desire for an idea is like bait.When you’re fishing, you have to havepatience. You bait your hook, and then you wait.The desire is thebait that pulls those fish in—those ideas.The beautiful thing is that when you catch one fish that you love,even if it’s a little fish—a fragment of an idea—that fish will draw inother fish, and they’ll hook onto it.Then you’re on your way. Soonthere are more and more and more fragments, and the whole thingemerges. But it starts with desire.
You have to be able to catch ideas.
Ideas are like fish.If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water.But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper.Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure.They’rehuge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.I look for a certain kind of fish that is important to me, one that cantranslate to cinema. But there are all kinds of fish swimming downthere. There are fish for business, fish for sports.There are fish foreverything.
I haven’t caughtthe next idea, either through a book or from theocean of ideas.