updated 1d ago
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
You can receive your ideas with respect and curiosity, not with drama or dread.
from Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Salman Ansari added 2mo ago
You can live a long life, making and doing really cool things the entire time. You might earn a living with your pursuits or you might not, but you can recognize that this is not really the point. And at the end of your days, you can thank creativity for having blessed you with a charmed, interesting, passionate existence.
from Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Salman Ansari added 2mo ago
I do not mean to say that somebody had stolen my notes, or that a crucial computer file had gone missing. What I mean is that the living heart of my novel was gone. The sentient force that inhabits all vibrant creative endeavors had vanished—swallowed like bulldozers in the jungle, you could say. Sure, all the research and writing I’d completed two
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Salman Ansari added 2mo ago
I refuse to take on additional jobs, such as trying to police what anybody thinks about my work once it leaves my desk.
from Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Salman Ansari added 2mo ago
A particularly elegant commentary on this instinct came from the Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, who said that—when one is learning how to write poetry—one should not expect it to be immediately good. The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only halfway down a well, coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is imm
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Salman Ansari added 2mo ago
Mind you, hard work guarantees nothing in realms of creativity. (Nothing guarantees anything in realms of creativity.) But I cannot help but think that devotional discipline is the best approach. Do what you love to do, and do it with both seriousness and lightness. At least then you will know that you have tried and that—whatever the outcome—you h
... See morefrom Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Salman Ansari added 2mo ago
Is it sometimes a difficult path? Sure. Does it make for an interesting life? The most. Will the inevitable difficulties and obstacles associated with creativity make you suffer? That part—cross my heart—is entirely up to you.
from Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Salman Ansari added 2mo ago
Devotion to Inquisitiveness I believe that curiosity is the secret. Curiosity is the truth and the way of creative living. Curiosity is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Furthermore, curiosity is accessible to everyone. Passion can seem intimidatingly out of reach at times—a distant tower of flame, accessible only to geniuses and
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Salman Ansari added 2mo ago
Curiosity is what keeps you working steadily, while hotter emotions may come and go.
from Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Christina Ducruet added 2mo ago