During what hours of the day do you feel most inspired? British actor, director and playwright Steven Berkoff I like to write in the afternoon, particularly at coffee shops. I guess you could say the evening as well because I am on stage and at my best. Musician Side Kick Nick 9.30am-11.15am 12pm-1.30pm 3.45-6pm, the inverse on Tuesdays. Dance filmmaker Daniel Belton Very early in the morning, very late at night, or sometimes in the afternoon. I don't have a formula for time in terms of creativity. The most important thing is to be open, and when inspiration surfaces, to give the ideas the time they need to be put down on paper - I always carry a blank book and a pencil, because recording even fleeting ideas is critical. I have books and books full of scrawling notes and drawings from new camera lens designs to ballets, to lighting plans, to design concepts for dance and opera, and film storyboards. How would a good friend describe your aesthetic or style? Textile artist Vita Cochran I asked my best friend and she said: 'Like a trade deal between Paris and Tokyo that's written in a haberdashery store which has an op-shop on one side of it and a cafe selling toasted cheese rolls on the other.' Tauranga-based singer-songwriter Luke Thompson I asked a good friend this question and he said, "A travelling minstrel/hobo who needs haircut." I occasionally sleep on his couch and eat his bagels. What aspect of your creative practice gives you the biggest thrill? Photographer Rebecca Swan See an idea manifested. I love the magic of watching a print coming up in the darkroom, it's like alchemy. Brian Ruawai from Cornerstone Roots New Songs and when the band locks in and we get sucked into that timeless vortex Artist and Curator Tessa Laird Making things, after years of just writing about other people making things, is an enormous thrill, particularly messing around with clay. Performer, dancer, director, teacher Kate Parker Being able to assist actors to access their flow, shine, joy, heart and connection. To delight in the connections that spark between the performers. The sense of alchemy that comes when all the parts of a devised work are being placed together. How does your environment affect your work? Composer Jenny McLeod I live in a small west coast village on a hill overlooking the sea, with a rather wild terraced back garden, birds, native trees, ferns. Every (fine) weekday morning I walk with neighbours for an hour along the beach and round the coast into a wilderness area. This environment has thoroughly nourished me for the last 28 years - to me it is endlessly cleansing, somehow. I find it has affected my work in sometimes unexpected ways of which I was not necessarily very conscious at the time - sounds from my everyday environment can sort of make their way into my music (eg. esp. natural sounds and kinds of movement, as with water, wind in leaves, bird sounds - though not so much in 'The Poet'). Dance filmmaker Daniel Belton Having very private spaces to develop my ideas is essential. If a space is bad architecturally, then I struggle to work well in it, and will go find another option. Lousy architects should be fined. Being able to get out into nature is also important to me - to balance up the intensity of the edit suite, the theatre and the dance studio. Documentary filmmaker Juliette Veber Well it's crucial when I'm shooting a documentary of course because I select the environment first, and then look for a story to tell in that environment. It's everything to me. For Trouble Is My Business, I selected South Auckland as my environment, and then spent a year working in the area looking for a story to tell about the place. I knew when I saw Mr Peach yelling into his megaphone, that I'd found my subject. Ceramist Raewyn Atkinson My environment is very important to me; I need a space free of distractions. A working space with good light is also important. Do you like to look at the big picture or focus on the details? Music consultant and Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd I like the big ideas but I also have an annoying interest in most detail and a slightly unhealthy interest in lists. Artist and Curator Tessa Laird Definitely the details - I'm a real ground-looker. In gardens or on bushwalks 'm always curious to know what's going on in the undergrowth, and at beaches I'll inevitably get sidetracked by rockpools, shells, crabs and seaweed, and forget to pay attention to the waves and the horizon. Furniture designer Tim Wigmore I try to zoom in. I find it's the details that make a work interesting and my process often seems to be a narrowing of focus from a broad initial concept. Composer Jenny McLeod At different stages of the creative process it's necessary to do both - the big picture comes more at the start when you're shaping the overall idea, or aim and intention. Then when actually composing the piece I tend to move from larger shapes into the details, which come later. Finally, every single detail, note, dynamic, articulation, registration, tone-colour, etc requires a conscious decision first, in order for it to be written down accurately. Fringe Festival director Mark Westerby Both. I always look at the project I am doing from the strategic perspective and ask the basic questions like "Why are we doing this?", "Who are we doing it for?" and "Where are we heading?". But I am also finicky about the small stuff, because it all adds up. What's your number one business tip for surviving (and thriving) in the creative industries? Writer Junot Díaz Exactly the advice nobody listens to: take your time. Video artist Michael Nicholson Stop thinking of Art-Making as a business. If you don't get known, you won't get seen. If you don't get seen, you won't get known. So begin by playing up. Get serious later. An early death in tragic circumstances is not a bad career move, if not for you then for your dealer. toggle.co.nz founders Shelley Simpson and Esther Lamb Don't expect people to find you, you have to get out there. Get involved in the community of makers in your field. Take advantage of the support and ideas they can offer. Musician Dave Dobbyn Reinvest everything you can and remain transparently honest in all dealings. Make sure that your output is quality and encourage your crew to improve on it. Praise your co-workers and keep your feet on the ground. Aspire. Actor Morgana O'Reilly In the industry I've gone into, there's a lot I've learnt, so here's 3 tips. When you don't get the part, don't let your talent take the hit, trust that it wasn't yours, but another one will come! When you've got no work, call it a holiday (even though it is enforced and dollar less) you never know, tomorrow you could get the next job and be run off our feet for the next three months. And finally, be a good person, be yourself and be professional and courteous to everyone you work with. Billy T comedy award winner Steve Wrigley You can't predict what people are going to like, only what you're in to. Stick it out with your own creative desires, make your target audience an audience of one, and the rest will follow. Artist and Curator Tessa Laird Personally I've always found that working on the things that interest you is the best way to attract attention and opportunities. I constantly see people trying to "package" or "taylor" themselves for a success which remains elusive. I think if you're true to yourself, you're more likely to be rewarded. Which of your projects to date has given you the most satisfaction? Moana Maniapoto The Korero Whanau Project in which I supported and mentored 25 families from around the country to capture their own whanau stories through books, cds, scripts, docos and websites. It was a life changing experience for all involved, empowering and hugely emotional. Textile artist Vita Cochran Filling the yoke of a Marilyn Sainty green wool dress with hundreds of appliqued flowers. Actually, almost anything involving Marilyn Sainty. Artist Sriwhana Spong I am never satisfied. Who or what has inspired you recently? Singer-songwriter Ariana Tikao (K?i Tahu) Being at Pao Pao Pao & sharing the stage with some amazing Maori musicians. Ruia in particular really inspired me. His music & his message is what we need more of in this country. Spread the word… Jennifer Ward-Lealand Frances Walsh, our new Actors Equity organiser. She is an excellent communicator. If you could go back and choose a completely different career path to the one you've chosen, what would it be? Composer Jenny McLeod (Why do I have to go back? I wouldn't have missed THIS life for anything in the world.) But at first I wanted to be an architect. More recently I decided that given another life I would either be an activist (and very unhappy because constantly thwarted) or else I would spend my life looking after dogs (and be blissfully happy as I love dogs). London-based soprano Madeleine Pierard Medicine – I had cancer as a child and was fascinated by the medical side of my treatment. I did originally enrol at university to do medicine as well as music, but music and then singing took over! What place is always with you, wherever you go? Musician Steve Abel Wow…I think it's a dappled moss glade in an open high canopied native forest (perhaps beech) with a bell bird singing and a pair of robins watching us from a rotting log as we sit down to rest before continuing our journey. And that damp peaty smell of native forest is always with me – I long for the land when I'm away. Play It Strange Trust,Trust CEO and musician Mike Chunn Well - I was one of the lucky ones who had a dream and, mostly, it came true. I remember dreaming that dream in the Sacred Heart College music rooms. I had a favourite room. An old piano. A dusty guitar. I take that small room with me in my pocket. Furniture designer Tim Wigmore My granddad's real junk shed. He was a fisherman and was always working on boats. His sheds were full of junk, the first shed was pretty useful junk like dials and lights, bits of motors and wheels. The second junk shed was less useful, the real junk shed was up in the bush behind the house and apart from a few gems was junk - an amazing place to play and rattle around in. What's the best way to listen to music, and why? Musician Chris Knox In a good sounding room, through a great sound system or acoustically. Preferably with someone you love to whom you are introducing this music and who is getting it. Or who is alerting you to something they love which is swamping your pleasure centres. Music is for sharing. To restrict your exposure to the solitary shame of lossy, compressed, files fed into some crappy earbuds stuck into an ipod or similar while doing something else – be it working, walking, wanking or whatever – is not to be confused with listening to music. It is something utterly different and wildly inferior especially when said files have already been mastered by some insane idiot whose only concern is loudness. Auckland Theatre Company artistic director Colin McColl Lying down. Always a problem at orchestral concerts where I have an overwhelming desire to lie down on the floor and let the music wash over me. Very therapeutic! I'm advocating for lying down on cushions concerts for the APO and NZSO! You are given a piece of string, a stick and some fabric. What do you make? Painter Adele Jackson I'd make a screen to stick in the sand so I could make shadow puppets with my fingers by firelight on the beach. Musician Steve Abel I would tie the string to one tip of the stick and then cut the fabric into a diamond shape the size of a 3B1 notebook then slightly wet the fabric and tie it to the other end of the string (which is about 4 feet long) and swing the stick with string extended around my head until the fabric makes a haunting singing sound…try it! Billy T comedy award winner Steve Wrigley A ghost puppet with a real annoying voice. Using the string to puppet one side of his flappy sheet arm thing and the stick having the fabric draped over it. I'd make him ask my flatmates really probing questions in his annoying voice whenever they don't do the dishes. So you see, I have made a highly motivational tool there. Would you like a diagram? What's the best stress relief advice you've ever been given? Arthur Meek Any time you're tempetd to read a self help book, pick up a novel instead. The human condition is explored far better and deeper by novelists NZTrio violinist Justine Cormack Learn to breathe low, wide and full - and practice the technique when you are going to sleep. Great way to drift off! Fourfontaine designer Mark Hurley Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere. What's great about today? Brian Ruawai from Cornerstone Roots If your unhappy and not walking your path, you can start today. Music consultant and Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd I'm not that old but I have noticed increased thinking about mortality recently so I would have to say that its a bit of a bonus just to be able to wake up in the morning. What's your big idea for 2008? Oscar Kightley Can someone please invent a machine that takes your DNA, then you type in all your ideas for a story and relevant experiences from the past that would help inform it, then type the stuff that influences you and that you like then you push a button and after a little bit of whirring a finished script prints out. Brian Ruawai from Cornerstone Roots A National Standard for Zero Waste at all Events in New Zealand