Creativity Quote by Ed O'Brien

“It is fantastic to be found in a foreign country” flips the usual travel cliché on its head. Most people talk about “finding themselves” abroad, as if a change of scenery is a self-help hack. Ed O’Brien’s phrasing is slyly passive: not to find, but to be found. The agency shifts outward. You’re not the hero of your own reinvention story; you’re the missing person, located by a place that doesn’t know your myths, your status, your routines. That’s the thrill.

Coming from a working musician - and specifically someone whose adult life has been structured by touring, transit lounges, and temporary belonging - the line reads like a love letter to dislocation. A “foreign country” is where your usual identity cues don’t scan. Your accent, clothes, and references land differently. Even your silence changes. Being “found” suggests a kind of capture: the culture, the street noise, the unfamiliar social rules catch you off guard and reintroduce you to yourself, but without the comforting narration.

There’s also a quiet rebuke in its simplicity. In an era when travel is increasingly packaged as content, this isn’t about collecting experiences; it’s about being interrupted by otherness. “Fantastic” carries that double charge: joyous, yes, but also unreal, almost dreamlike. You’re located in a new frame, and suddenly your life becomes legible in a different light. For an artist, that’s oxygen: estrangement as a creative reset, not a postcard.