when art and words collide // (or, some quotes)

1. Originality

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” [C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity]

I feel this. I think these words are especially meaningful for artists who are Enneagram Fours, like me. I often overthink or doubt my work because I worry that it's nothing new, too cliché, or not original enough. But the best and most impactful things I've created are the ones that tell it like it is (albeit poetically).

2. The Reason We Create

“Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. 

This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity... Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose... 

Describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty - describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember... your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. - And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it.  

A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it.”  [Rainer Maria Rilke]

I am continually awestruck by that quote. Read it as many times as you need to fully understand it. The one thing I want to add is that God is the real driving force behind the inspiration for the good things I've written (the ones that arose out of necessity). It's not just my own introspection or soul-searching. I don't want to take the credit. He's the one who keeps me writing - because there are some things that I feel so inexpressibly deeply and He gave me a way to express them.