Margaret, one of my Daily Write "Round Robin" students, was kind enough to send this quote to me, so I am passing it on to all of you:
“I demanded a realm in which I should be both master and slave at the same time: the world of art is the only such realm. I entered it without any apparent talent, a thorough novice, incapable, awkward, tongue-tied, almost paralyzed by fear and apprehensiveness. I had to lay one brick on another, set millions of words to paper before writing one real, authentic word dragged up from my own guts. The facility of speech which I possessed was a handicap; I had all the vices of the educated man. I had to learn to think, feel and see in a totally new fashion, in an uneducated way, in my own way, which is the hardest thing in the world. I had to throw myself into the current, knowing that I would probably sink. The great majority of artists are throwing themselves in with life-preservers around their necks, and more often than not it is the life-preserver which sinks them.”
Henry Miller, “Reflections on Writing: The Wisdom of the Heart.”
It's a good quote, don't you think? I could even see putting it at the top of the Writing Salon website's home page for a while.
Wonderful.
Posted by: Pat MacEnulty | Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 08:53 PM