A Metaphor

Ideas in Art (and probably in general) are like dates.

You can't just sit on your couch waiting for some dashing idea to sweep you off your feet and carry you away.  He won't know where to find you.  He may not even know you exist.

I've heard (and used) all the excuses before:
 

My hair isn't quite long enough yet for an idea to be able to climb my tower.

All the good ideas have already been taken.

I have too much cleaning up to do before I can go to the ball and dance with an idea.

Even if I had an idea, I wouldn't know what to do with it.

I've been cursed to live as a sheep.

All tried and true, but the fact remains they're still excuses.

An idea isn't something you wait around for.  You have to go looking for it.  You have to be bold and courageous.  You need to try.

Sure, there might be ideas that look very spiffy in a cravat and spats, and then turn out to be dead ends in the end.  But there will also be other ones with nerdy t-shirts and distracted expressions that turn out to be fantastic friends that lead you on adventures to whole universes full of ideas.

Sure, you might get bumped and bruised from time to time, but you'll also learn things about the world and about yourself.

And in the end, you might finally come across an idea that never ends, an idea you love and that loves you back.  An idea that was worth all the searching.

But you'll never know until you try.