Maybe inspiration is from “breathing” in the known and breathing out the unknown. For me creative genius has always been taking old knowledge and putting it together in new ways to see something we couldn’t before. Some of the greatest scientific discoveries were made by flipping conventional wisdom on its head, literally seeing things from the opposite point of view – think Copernicus. Kind of like breathing in and breathing out. ;-)
RE: Inspiration - Where Does It Come From? (Origins of Word)