Writing well involves walking the path of most resistance. Sitting still, being patient, allowing the lunatic dream to take shape on the page, then the shaping, the pencil on the page, breathing, slowing down, being willing–no, more than willing, being wide open–to press the bruise until it blossoms.
Interpretation
Writing requires patience and perseverance, allowing creative ideas to develop fully before finalizing them.
This quote emphasizes the challenging yet rewarding process of writing, where the initial chaotic ideas must be nurtured and shaped patiently. It suggests that great writing emerges from a struggle with one's thoughts and emotions, encouraging writers to embrace discomfort and vulnerability in their creative journey.
In practice
In a writing workshop, you can share this quote to inspire participants to embrace their creative process.
The writing life requires courage, patience, persistence, empathy, openness, and the ability to deal with rejection. It requires the willingness to be alone with oneself. To be gentle with oneself. To look at the world without blinders on. To observe and withstand what one sees. To be disciplined, and at the same time, take risks. To be willing to fail - not just once, but again and again, over the course of a lifetime.
Confidence is highly overrated when it comes to creating literature. A writer who is overly confident will not engage in the struggle to get it exactly right on the page - but rather, will assume that she's getting it right without the struggle.
When we reach reflexively for something to dull an ache inside of us, in that very moment of reaching, we are hiding from our pain. We're storing it away. Tamping it down.
I try to remember that the job - as well as the plight, and the unexpected joy - of the artist is to embrace uncertainty, to be sharpened and honed by it.
I do fashion to tell a narrative.
Fashion is not beautiful, neither is it ugly. Why should it be either? Fashion is fashion.
Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.
Do I feel that white directors have to tell only white stories? No. Do I feel that black filmmakers should only tell stories about black people? No. If we say that, then that means Asian people cannot write about anybody but Asians. I don't think a woman should only write about women.
No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder.
When we free ourselves we are not freed into a void. When we free ourselves we are freed into a dimension in which Art is an obligation.
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