I can only speak for myself. But what I write and how I write is done in order to save my own life. And I mean that literally. For me literature is a way of knowing that I am not hallucinating, that whatever I feel/know is.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the personal necessity of writing as a means to validate one's existence and emotions.
Barbara Christian expresses that her writing is not just a form of artistic expression but a vital tool for affirming her reality and mental state. She suggests that through literature, she can confirm her thoughts and feelings are genuine, rather than mere hallucinations, indicating the profound connection between creativity and self-awareness.
In practice
In a writing workshop about the importance of personal narratives.
I am part of a light, and it is the music. The Light fills my six senses: I see it, hear, feel, smell, touch and think. Thinking of it means my sixth sense. Particles of Light are written note. A bolt of lightning can be an entire sonata. A thousand balls of lightening is a concert.. For this concert I have created a Ball Lightning, which can be heard on the icy peaks of the Himalayas.
Outlaws, like lovers, poets, and tubercular composers who cough blood onto piano keys, do their finest work in the slippery rays of the moon.
The most beautiful thing in the world is a ballpark filled with people.
Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.
The thing is, as a film director, you're essentially alone: You have to tell a story primarily through pictures, and only you know the film you see in your head.
Why one writes is a question I can answer easily, having so often asked it of myself. I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live. I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me - the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art.
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