I get intrigued by a puzzle, and writing a book is the best way to solve it.
If creative work protects a man against mental illness, it is small wonder that he pursues it with avidity; and even if the state of mind he is seeking to avoid is no more than a mild state of depression or apathy, this still constitutes a cogent reason for engaging in creative work even when it brings no obvious external benefit in its train.
Had [Winston Churchill] been a stable and equable man, he could never have inspired the nation. In 1940, when all the odds were against Britain, a leader of sober judgment might well have concluded that we were finished.
Since I was not able wholly to subscribe to any one set of beliefs advanced by any 'guru' I had to fall back on my own, however derivative.
Some split between the inner world and outer world is common to all behaviour, and the need to bridge the gap is the source of creative behaviour.
Inspiration cannot be willed, though it can be wooed.
The word "jealousy" is often used as if it were synonymous with envy; but I think the distinction worth preserving. Jealousy is predominantly concerned with the fear of loss of something one possesses, envy with the wish to own something another possesses. Othello suffers from the fear that he has lost Desdemona's love. Iago suffers from envy of the position held by Cassio, to which he feels entitled.
The creative consequences of man's imaginative strivings may never make him whole; but they constitute his deepest consolations and his greatest glories.
So-called "inspiration" is no more than an extreme example of a process which constantly goes on in the minds of all of us.
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