Excerpt From Star Talk Radio: Neil Degrasse Tyson - Season One: A Universe of Inspiration (Part 2)

We are happy to present part two of this excerpt from Star Talk Radio season one with Neil Degrasse Tyson as he continues the discussion of how creativity is inspired by the universe and every type of artist there is.  It's not just about painters and sculpters.  Let's take a look:

Peter I understand the universe inspires you. Is that a recent phenomena, or does it go far back?

It started when I was about 10, hmm, 7 years old living in China, and I was near Tibet and I met an older man who started talking to me “Do you know about the stars and the planets?”, and I had no clue, and every day we would talk about it, and by the time I think 5, 6, or 10 days went by, that’s all I would think about, and I would go to sleep dreaming about it, thinking about it.

So, it took only a week for it to just infiltrate to your mind and body?

Yes, to jumpstart that, and believe in that. It just grew and grew and grew. There is not a single day in my life where I’m not preoccupied with things about planets, stars, the universe. What is this whole thing? There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about it. I wake up in the morning, and it’s amazing like some cosmic alarm clock talking, opens my eyes and I think about the universe. I don’t think about the bed I’m sleeping in, I don’t care what day it is, I don’t care what it is I have to do today, the first thing is the universe, the cosmos, then I’ve got to calm this down, and then I look at my sheet of what I’ve got to do today. So, the first thing is the universe.

So, you’ve got it bad?

I’ve got it bad.

You’ve got it so bad it’s good.

Yeah. It’s unbelievable. That’s why when I’m with you, see you on TV, talk to you, even hear your name, forgive me, but I get so inspired by that.

He’s so nice to me.

Forgive me, he says. That’s so beautiful. You’re his muse.

He didn’t have to say that. It was, that was so nice.

If you remember Peter Max he wrote all those love posters from the 60s, and yeah. And it’s like he was the artist of a generation.

Oh my gosh, you still see all the t-shirts that have the peace sign and the hearts, the big hearts that he did. I wanted to say, what he said, I thought was so sweet about waking up and how the universe inspires him, like he doesn’t think about his bed. That’s what I’m saying, like artists are so neat, because they think in such a bigger…..

A bigger canvas.

Yes.

And the universe I think is inspirational because it’s infinite.

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The Neil deGrasse Tyson StarTalk Radio Collection