But I'm very lucky to have had those experiences. Yes, I have. As a matter of fact, I was there just a month ago, touring for a new book. I've toured over most of the United States, but the problem with this sort of tour is that you have to travel onwards too quickly to be able to see very much of any one place. So I now have a long list of places to come back to and spend longer in.
Ideas come all the time.
I never have to do any research to find ideas. Research, for me, is just a name for having fun finding out things. And sometimes these are things I'm searching for in particular, and sometimes they're just things I get curious about for no special reason. It's not what a scholar would call research, but that's what I call it. I had the shed built about 15 years ago when my oldest son, who was then 13 years old, was learning the violin.