The poet is one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive.
Anais NinRead
Writers do not live one life, they live two. There is the living and then there is the writing. There is the second tasting, the delayed reaction.
Interpretation
Writers experience life both in reality and through their writing, allowing for deeper reflections and insights.
Anais Nin's quote suggests that writers engage in a dual existence; they not only experience life but also interpret and express it through their craft. This secondary 'life' adds richness to their experiences, as they explore their thoughts, emotions, and reactions in a way that allows for a deeper understanding of the world around them.
In practice
This quote could be used in a writing workshop to inspire participants to reflect on their lived experiences.
The poet is one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive.
Anxiety is love's greatest killer, because it is like the stranglehold of the drowning.
We celebrate peace. Yet we pay no attention to the ways of curing aggression in human beings. And when one sees in psychoanalysis hostility disappearing as people conquer their fears, one wonders if the cure is not there.
The impetus to grow and live intensely is so powerful in me I cannot resist it. I will work, I will love my husband, but I will fulfill myself.
We have been poisoned by fairy tales.
But I lie. I embellish. My words are not deep enough. They disguise, they conceal. I will not rest until I have told of my descent into a sensuality which was as dark, as magnificent, as wild, as my moments of mystic creation have been dazzling, ecstatic, exalted.
Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go.
It was in the 1920s, when nobody had time to reflect, that I saw a still-life painting with a flower that was perfectly exquisite, but so small you really could not appreciate it.
Comedy is a reflection. We create nothing. We set no styles, no standards. We're reflections. It's a distorted mirror in the fun house. We watch society. As society behaves, then we have the ability to make fun of it.
Every performer I talk to will, with different words, talk about the sanctity of a good standup show, how it can really feel spiritual. When everybody is laughing, fixed on the same thing, you feel like you transcend yourself.
I'm not a builder of buildings, I'm a builder of collections.
There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda. Propaganda can be written by anybody, including dictators.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.