In the marginalia ... we talk only to ourselves; we therefore talk freshly - boldly - originally - with abandonment - without conceit.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that personal notes and thoughts allow for unfiltered and original self-expression.
Edgar Allan Poe's quote highlights the value of writing in the margins of books or recording personal thoughts, which liberates one's creativity and authenticity. In those private moments, the writer speaks directly to themselves, resulting in bold, original ideas free from the constraints of external judgment or conceit. This emphasizes the importance of introspection and personal creativity in artistic expression.
In practice
An artist might use this quote to inspire a workshop on creative writing techniques.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
My contribution to the world is my ability to draw. I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can.
The main thing about directing is: photograph the people's eyes.
In order to design buildings with a sensuous connection to life, one must think in a way that goes far beyond form and construction.
If you're performing music that is not who you are or where you're at, it is painful. It's painful for the performer and for the audience.
Film is really the one art form that can effectively use silence. Music and theater can play with silence, but they can't sustain silence without losing energy, whereas film can go into a silent mode and stay there for minutes at a time.
I joyfully hasten to meet death. If it come before I have had opportunity to develop all my artistic faculties, it will come, my hard fate notwithstanding, too soon, and I should probably wish it later - yet even then I shall be happy, for will it not deliver me from a state of endless suffering?
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