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Life & Wisdom Quote by Jackie Collins

"Ideas are all around me. If I wasn't interested in them myself, I don't think anyone else would be either"

About this Quote

Ideas, in Jackie Collins's world, are less lightning bolts than raw material: plentiful, cheap, and only valuable once someone has the nerve to shape them into a story people actually want. When she says "Ideas are all around me", she is puncturing the romantic myth of the solitary genius struck by inspiration. The sharper move comes next: "If I wasn't interested in them myself, I don't think anyone else would be either". That's not coy humility; it's a hard-nosed statement about audience, appetite, and the author's job as the first customer.

The intent is pragmatic and slightly provocative: she places personal fascination at the center of commercial success, implying that "market research" starts as self-research. Collins wrote glossy, high-drama novels that critics often dismissed as trashy while readers devoured them. In that context, the line reads like a rebuttal to literary gatekeeping: the same instinct that makes her lean in is what makes millions lean in. Her taste is the point, not an embarrassment.

The subtext also reveals a discipline disguised as swagger. Collins isn't claiming everyone shares her preferences; she's claiming the only reliable compass is obsession. If the author isn't entertained, aroused, or compelled, the prose will show it. There's a quiet warning, too: chasing what you think "people" want without wanting it yourself produces work that feels algorithmic before algorithms. In an age of content farms and trend-chasing, her sentence lands as a simple test: are you genuinely curious, or just trying to be marketable?

Quote Details

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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Collins, Jackie. (2026, January 17). Ideas are all around me. If I wasn't interested in them myself, I don't think anyone else would be either. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ideas-are-all-around-me-if-i-wasnt-interested-in-28366/

Chicago Style
Collins, Jackie. "Ideas are all around me. If I wasn't interested in them myself, I don't think anyone else would be either." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ideas-are-all-around-me-if-i-wasnt-interested-in-28366/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Ideas are all around me. If I wasn't interested in them myself, I don't think anyone else would be either." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ideas-are-all-around-me-if-i-wasnt-interested-in-28366/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.

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Jackie Collins quote on curiosity and discovering ideas
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About the Author

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Jackie Collins (October 4, 1937 - September 19, 2015) was a Author from United Kingdom.

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