“You are looking outward, and that above all you should not do now. Nobody can counsel and help you, nobody. Search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write. This above all–ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: must I write?” – Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Must I write?
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2 responses to “Must I write?”
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It is a comfort, truly, to be in communion with people who understand this as an imperative.
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No one chooses this – that’s for sure. you’d have to be crazy to want to put yourself through the things writers go through. But that we do it – there’s nothing else that matters or makes sense. There’s no going back to a life without it – such a life is terribly unfulfilling.
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