The Tarot of Songwriting 09 - The Hermit
I eventually learned to treat each solitary writing session at home the same way I treat a live performance. In other words, I learned to treat myself with the same care and respect I give to an audience. This was not a trivial lesson. These rituals and preparations function to discharge and clear obscurations and nervous doubts, to invoke our muse
... See moreStephen Nachmanovitch • Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art
I can’t tell you how often half-remembered tales or misheard sentences find their way into songs. These things are ingested in what I think of as inhalation mode. I find that I am drawn inexplicably to certain flames of interest (books, films, works of art, jaw-dropping gossip) and am so dazzled by their brilliance that I come away scorched by only... See more
Laura Marling • The Tarot of Songwriting 08 - Strength
But how can they justify this kind of censorship? You write music! Music is a cooperative art, organic by definition, social. It may be the noblest form of social behavior we’re capable of. It’s certainly one of the noblest jobs an individual can undertake. And by its nature, by the nature of any art, it’s a sharing. The artist shares, it’s the ess
... See moreUrsula K. Le Guin • The Dispossessed (Hainish Cycle)
If a piece of work, a fragment of consciousness, or an element of nature is somehow allowing us to access something bigger, that is its spiritual component made manifest. It awards us a glimpse of the unseen.
Rick Rubin • The Creative Act: A Way of Being
What is the test an artist uses in those crucial moments during the process? How do you know when the work—and the working—is good? How can you tell when you’re moving in the right direction? What does forward motion look like? You could say it’s a feeling. An inner voice. A silent whisper that makes you laugh. An energy that enters the room and po
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