In 1984, the composer John Adams discovered that the way to break through a creative block is to follow the simplest of self-help clichés: think big and follow your dreams. Unable to connect with his muse for 18 painful months, Mr. Adams dreamed that while crossing the San Francisco Bay Bridge, he saw a supertanker rise out of the bay and take flight. In another dream, he saw his four-month-old daughter, Emily, riding on the shoulders of the medieval theologian Meister Eckhardt, both of them floating in space. - ALLAN KOZINN
client: The Wall Street Journal