When the work takes over, then the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere. When the work takes over, then the artist listens.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that true creativity arises when the artist allows their work to guide them instead of forcing their own will into it.
Madeleine L'Engle emphasizes the importance of letting go of control and becoming a conduit for creativity. When an artist stops interfering with their work and instead listens to it, they can allow their true vision to manifest, resulting in authentic art. This process of surrendering to the work fosters a connection that brings forth inspiration and expression that may not have been possible through direct manipulation.
In practice
In a workshop on artistic expression, this quote can remind participants to trust their creative process.
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.
When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.
Poetry is a vocation. It is not a career but a calling.
A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.
I think the purpose of a piece of music is significant when it actually lives in somebody else. A composer puts down a code, and a performer can activate the code in somebody else. Once it lives in somebody else, it can live in others as well.
I feel that buildings often have a workaday aspect that you see during the daylight hours, and a more resplendent side that emerges after dark.
Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it.
For my part, if I consider poetry as an object, I maintain that it is born of the necessity of adding a vocal sound (speech) to the hammering of the first tribal music.
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