“…Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you’re 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn’t go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so […]
Henry Miller’s 11 Tips to Writing Well
Writing Advice by Henry Miller These writing tips were originally written by Anaïs Nin’s not-so-secret lover in Henry Miller’s book, On Writing. 1. Work on one thing at a time until finished. 2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.” 3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in […]
Picasso on Art, Instinct and the Shadow
“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow, —the million moving shapes and cul-de-sacs of shadow. Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don’t start measuring her limbs.” ~ Pablo […]
Neil Gaiman’s 8 Finest Writing Tips
Elizabeth Gilbert on Finding Your Elusive Creative Genius
In this talk ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ author, Elizabeth Gilbert, contemplates the impossible things that are expected from artists, authors and geniuses — she shares the interesting idea that, instead of the rare person being a genius, all of us have a genius. It’s amusing, inspiring, insightful, personal and moving talk. “Gilbert is irreverent, hilarious, zestful, courageous, intelligent, and […]
Scott Morrison on Being Alive, Awake, and Free, This Moment
Stop dead in your tracks. It doesn’t matter at all, what you’ve ever done, or not done. It doesn’t matter how grandiose, self-centered, arrogant, or neurotic you’ve ever been. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you’ve been, or how stupid you’ve been. It doesn’t matter what you’ve ever experienced, or not experienced. It doesn’t matter how […]
Julia Cameron on Art Being an Act of the Soul
Anais Nin on Art, the Marvelous and Escaping Ordinary Life
“Ordinary life does not interest me. I seek only the high moments. I am in accord with the surrealists, searching for the marvellous. I want to be a writer who reminds others that these moments exist; I want to prove that there is infinite space, infinite meaning, infinite dimension. But I am not always in […]
Sarah Waters on being disciplined
“Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Lots of writers get a bit OCD-ish about this. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words a day. Jean Plaidy managed 5,000 before lunch, then spent the afternoon answering fan mail. My minimum is 1,000 words a day – which is sometimes easy to achieve, and is sometimes, frankly, like […]
Jim Jarmusch on Authenticity and Stealing from Other Artists
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, […]