capture somebody's imagination
catch somebody's imagination

And she has never done much to capture the public imagination.

There was nothing to capture or focus the public's imagination.

Something that would capture the public's imagination in terms people could understand.

When he was about 20, a new subject captured his imagination.

Clearly, he has captured the imagination of the Western public.

No other book has captured my imagination quite so completely.

But more than that, it would capture the public's imagination.

But he never quite captured the imagination of the fighting public.

Any general or other leading figure who captured the public imagination soon found himself out of a job.

"It captured the imagination of the car public, especially the Americans."