I select a very small number of things to be sceptical about, such as markets, and on these I am hypersceptic. But I want to be fooled by randomness in art. I want the ceremonial of religion; we are made for it.

There's a randomness, even if you're talented. This is a very unforgiving industry that puts you through the ringer. It is not easy by any means, but it's one of those things that if you have the patience, the perspective, and the talent, it can really take off.

People believe the only alternative to randomness is intelligent design.

Chance doesn't mean meaningless randomness, but historical contingency. This happens rather than that, and that's the way that novelty, new things, come about.

Chance is hugely significant in biology. In fact, the presence of apparent randomness in so many aspects of biology - from mutations in DNA to the chance involved in that one sperm reaching that one egg that became you - suggests that randomness is useful, even necessary, in very many cases.

Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.