I am imbued with the notion that a Muse is necessarily a dead woman, inaccessible or absent; that a poetic structure - like the canon, which is only a hole surrounded by steel - can be based only on what one does not have; and that ultimately one can write only to fill a void or at the least to situate, in relation to the most lucid part of ourselves, the place where this incommensurable abyss yawns within us.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that inspiration often arises from absence or loss, and that creative work is driven by the desire to fill an emotional void.
Michel Leiris reflects on the nature of artistic inspiration, suggesting that true creativity often stems from a sense of longing or loss, particularly associated with the idea of the Muse as an absent figure. He likens poetic creation to constructing a framework around a void, implying that the most profound artistic expressions arise from our deepest emotional lacks and the search for understanding within ourselves.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of absence in creative processes.
You don't have to be singing specifically about things that are going on in your life, but because of the nature of music, because it is this incredibly emotional phenomenon, everything that you are feeling or experiencing is relayed in the music you put out.
Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
They hear it come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing 'cause that's a way of understanding life.
If you're going to play human beings, and you're going to play them three-dimensionally, you have to show every side of them.
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.
There's something about the sound of a train that's very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.
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