A studio, like a poem, is an intimacy and a freedom you can look out from, into each part of your life and a little beyond.
Jane HirshfieldRead
When I write, I don't know what is going to emerge. I begin in a condition of complete unknowing, an utter nakedness of concept or goal. A word appears, another word appears, an image. It is a moving into mystery.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the unpredictability and spontaneity of the creative writing process.
Jane Hirshfield discusses the experience of writing as an exploration into the unknown, where the writer starts without a clear direction or goal. This process allows creativity to flow freely, as words and images emerge organically, transforming the act of writing into an adventurous journey filled with mystery.
Themes
WritingCreativityMysteryExplorationImagination
In practice
Example use cases
During a workshop on creative writing, a participant might share this quote to encourage others to embrace the unknown in their writing process.
More from Jane Hirshfield
All quotes →What we want from art is whatever is missing from the lives we are already living and making. Something is always missing, and so art-making is endless.
Jane HirshfieldRead
as some strings, untouched, sound when no one is speaking. So it was when love slipped inside us.
Jane HirshfieldRead
Tree It is foolish to let a young redwood grow next to a house. Even in this one lifetime, you will have to choose. That great calm being, this clutter of soup pots and books-- Already the first branch-tips brush at the window. Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.
Jane HirshfieldRead
I write because to write a new sentence, let alone a new poem, is to cross the threshold into both a larger existence and a profound mystery. A thought was not there, then it is. An image, a story, an idea about what it is to be human, did not exist, then it does. With every new poem, an emotion new to the heart, to the world, speaks itself into being.
Jane HirshfieldRead
Zen pretty much comes down to three things -- everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.
Jane HirshfieldRead
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