I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live. I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me — the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art.
Anäis Nin, diary, Feb. 1954
Tag: quote
“If poetry springs from those precious moments when solitude is erased by the murmur of shared dreams, or from those furtive hours when thoughts melt into one another or bloom in the warmth and confidences exchanged, then my hands, like yours, are like flowers.”
-Anäis Nin
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
~Pablo Neruda
100 Love Sonnets
“Examine the past of most people, and you find a neat cemetery or an urn with ashes. But examine the past of an artist and you find monuments to its perpetuity, a book, a statue, a painting, a symphony, a poem.”
-Anäis Nin
I cannot find a reason for this; things float in vast clouds around my head, settle, invade all my kingdoms, spread alarm, confusion and pleasure, arouse, inflame, inspire, exalt and, above all things, cry loudly, piercingly. Ink, ink. Give us ink!
Ink, pen and paper seem the greatest necessities of my existence. I could go without food, without friends, without home or books, but without ink and paper, I should die
Anäis Nin, The Early Diary of Anäis Nin, Volume Two
“The muse is not an angelic voice that sits on your shoulder and sings sweetly. The muse is the most annoying whine. The muse isn’t hard to find, just hard to like – she follows you everywhere, tapping you on the shoulder, demanding that you stop doing whatever else you might be doing and pay attention to her.”
-Harlan Coben
A Year of Muses To Come
“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”
– Ray Bradbury
This is SO my New Year’s resolution – which was the same resolution I had for 2015.
What’s yours?
Happy Halloween!
Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, “Never take candy from strangers.” And then they dressed me up and said, “Go beg for it.” I didn’t know what to do! I’d knock on peoples’ doors and go, “Trick or treat – No thank you.”
– Rita Rudner
Happy Hallows’ Eve To All!
One of my favorite animated characters is Emily from The Corpse Bride and while this is a work-in-progress, just wanted to pop in and wish you all a happy Halloween and happy new year according to the old seasonal calendar. This is the time the world goes to sleep and prepares itself for spring.
Mondays
Just one of those days when you want a do-over but you might as well just go with the flow.
Morrighan's Muse 