Amusing anecdote by Simpsons scriptwriter Matt Selman at Time.com
True Tales of Conversational Vengeance

Alright, I thought. A New Person. No problem. I'm no misanthrope. Just pretend to be a nomal person who's good at small talk: look people in the eye. Listen to what they have to say. Don't just talk about yourself. Ask questions that show you've been listening. Laugh even if they aren't funny. Don't be a misanthrope.
In my memory, my New Person looked like a blond version of the actor who played Young Sherlock Holmes in Young Sherlock Holmes. So Blond Young Sherlock Holmes and I attempted conversation.
BLOND YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES: So, what do you do?
ME: I'm a TV writer.
BYSH: (IMMEDIATELY) I don't watch TV. Really, I don't even own a TV...

(link thanks to Bob Morales)

Steven Grant on where ideas come from

"Ideas" seem to have a mystical quality for most people, but the only reason there's anything at all mystical about them is that people assume there must be something mystical about them. Every idea is a juxtaposition. That's it. A juxtaposition of existing concepts.
When you were a baby you were putting together huge ideas on a second-to-second basis, as you were absorbing and figuring out the world to the point of being able in some small measure to cope with it. Didn't matter that probably none of those ideas were new – the only time it didn't matter – it only matters that you had, have, it in you. That you're here now is proof of this.
Past infancy, your ability to concoct ideas is mostly connected to your upbringing...

I once heard an explanation of how jokes work, that they are a conundrum set up in one context and then resolved in another. It was a perfect description of something I already seemed to know but couldn't have explained. A brilliant flash of astonishing simplicity. On another occasion I was curious as to what 'lateral thinking' is. I picked up De Bono's book and tried to figure it out. It all seemed to be a complicated way of jumpstarting ideas. Useful to store away in case I ever need one. Going now to the Wikipedia page on the subject i find the text close to impenetrable:" Harvest tools that are designed to ensure more value is received from idea generating output." Sounds like battery eggs to me.