Our scribblings are usually not lyrics but whirrings, without colour or resonance, like the tone of an engine-wheel. I believe that the cause lies in the fact that when people write, they forget for the most part to dig deeply into themselves and to feel the whole import and truth of what they are writing.
Interpretation
Writing often lacks depth because people fail to connect with their true emotions.
Rosa Luxemburg's quote reflects on the nature of writing, suggesting that many writers produce works that lack emotional depth and resonance. She argues that this disconnect arises from a failure to engage fully with one's inner self and to express the profound truths and feelings inherent in the writing process. By emphasizing the need to 'dig deeply,' Luxemburg calls for a more authentic and heartfelt approach to creativity.
In practice
During a workshop on creative writing, a facilitator could use this quote to encourage participants to tap into their personal experiences.
The working classes in every country only learn to fight in the course of their struggles...Social democracy...is only the advance guard of the proletariat, a small piece of the total working masses; blood from their blood, and flesh from their flesh. Social democracy seeks and finds the ways, and particular slogans, of the workers' struggle only in the course of the development of this struggle, and gains directions for the way forward through this struggle alone.
Freedom for supporters of the government only, for members of one party only no matter how big its membership may be is no freedom at all. Freedom is always freedom for the man who thinks differently.
Social democracy seeks and finds the ways, and particular slogans, of the workers' struggle only in the course of the development of this struggle, and gains directions for the way forward through this struggle alone.
The existing legal constitution is nothing but the product of a revolution. Revolution is the act of political creation in the history of classes, while constitutional legislation is the expression of the continual political vegetation of a society.
Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.
Work for legal reform takes place only within the framework of the social form created by the last revolution.
Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.
The great men of music close periods; they do not inaugurate them. The pioneer work, the finding of new paths, is left to smaller men.
I still get a little nervous before performing. You don't want to forget a lyric; you don't want to make a mistake. I still get butterflies. You can try to judge an audience, but you can only really judge things by the applause.
I'm involved in all things musical. It's all consuming, even if it doesn't necessarily manifest as a record or a concert.
The beauty that addresses itself to the eyes is only the spell of the moment; the eye of the body is not always that of the soul.
My life is, in a sense, trash. My life is only that of which the residue is my writing.
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