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
My job as a human being as well as a writer is to feel as thoroughly as possible the experience that I am part of, and then press it a little further.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the role of a writer (and human) in deeply experiencing life and expressing those experiences creatively.
Jane Hirshfield conveys that the primary responsibility of both a writer and a human is to fully immerse oneself in the richness of life's experiences. This deep engagement with the world allows individuals to explore and articulate the nuances of their feelings, ultimately pushing the boundaries of understanding and creativity through their work.
In practice
In a workshop on creative writing, a participant could use this quote to underline the importance of personal experience in storytelling.
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.
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.
as some strings, untouched, sound when no one is speaking. So it was when love slipped inside us.
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.
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.
Zen pretty much comes down to three things -- everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.
A lot of my works deal with a passage, which is about time. I don't see anything that I do as a static object in space. It has to exist as a journey in time.
For me, cinema is a vice. I love it intimately.
Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer. So I began sleeping less to give her the time she needed.
What music is better able to do than language is to represent the complexity of human emotional states.
Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.
It is only the untalented director who imagines him or herself in every part, wants his or her own thoughts and emotions portrayed; it is only the untalented who make their own limitations those of the actors as well.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.