To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.
Interpretation
Writing requires vulnerability and the willingness to embrace criticism.
This quote by Anne Rice highlights the inherent risk in the act of creativity, particularly writing. To express oneself through words, one must be prepared to face potential ridicule or judgment, yet this willingness to take a risk is what leads to genuine expression and artistic authenticity.
In practice
This quote is perfect for motivating writers during a workshop.
From my stone pillow I have dreamed dreams of the mortal world above. I have heard its voices, its new music, as lullabies as I lie in my grave. I have envisioned its fantastical discoveries. I have known its courage in the timeless sanctum of my thoughts. And though it shuts me out with its dazzling forms, I long for one with the strength to roam it fearlessly, to ride the Devil's Road through its heart.
We all suffer under a curse, the curse that we know more than we can endure, and there is nothing, absolutely nothing we can do about the force and the lure of this knowledge.
And so this young one, this young one whom I had so loved, I had to forsake, no matter how broken my heart, no matter how lonely my soul, no matter how bruised my intellect and spirit.
Dear God, help me. Do not forget me on this tiny cinder lost in a galaxy that is lostβa heart no bigger than a speck of dust beating, beating against death, against meaninglessness, against guilt, against sorrow.
The vampires have always been metaphors for me. They've always been vehicles through which I can express things I have felt very, very deeply.
In the very depths of Hell, do not demons love one another?
For now, poetry has the capacity - in its own ways and by its own means - to remind us of something we are forbidden to see.
I'm a method actress in my songs, which is why it's hard to sing them.
We call those poets who are first to mark, Through earth's dull mist the coming of the dawn, Who see in twilight's gloom the first pale spark, While others only note that day is gone.
It's certainly true that when I was young, writing seemed to me so important that I would have sacrificed almost anything to it ... Because I thought of the world in which I wrote -- the world I created -- as somehow much more enormously alive than the world I was actually living in.
You cannot be an actor like I am and not have been in some of the worst movies like I have. But I stand before you deeply honored, mighty grateful and just plain gobsmacked.
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.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.