Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those, who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, which is inherent in a human condition
writing
I recognized my work for what it was--as unimportant a drug as cigarettes to get one through the weeks and years. If we are extinguished by death, as I still try to believe, what point is there in leaving some books behind any more than bottles, clothes, or cheap jewellry?
death work writing
A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.
arbitrariness beginning creative-process end storytelling writing
So much in writing depends on the superficiality of one's days. One may be preoccupied with shopping and income tax returns and chance conversations, but the stream of the unconscious continues to flow undisturbed, solving problems, planning ahead: one sits down sterile and dispirited at the desk, and suddenly the words come as though from the air: the situations that seemed blocked in a hopeless impasse move forward: the work has been done while one slept or shopped or talked with friends.
composition creative-process daily-life preoccupations subconscious superficiality writing
It is the storyteller's task to elicit sympathy and a measure of understanding for those who lie outside the boundaries of State approval.
writing writing-philosophy