I love this book I'm reading right now. (I'm hardly alone in that, since
it won a National Book Award.) Anyway, here are a few lines for
inspiration:
In my low periods, I wondered what was the point
of creating art. For whom? Are we animating God? Are we talking to
ourselves? And what was the ultimate goal? ...
Why commit to art? For
self-realization, or for itself? It seemed indulgent to add to the glut
unless one offered illumination. ...
I wondered if anything I did mattered. ...
...
I understood that what matters is the work ... To achieve within the
work a perfect balance of faith and execution. From this state of mind
comes a light, life-charged.
--from Just Kids, by Patti Smith
I've never heard of this book before--but those are interesting lines. Thanks for posting them!
ReplyDeleteEagle: It's a memoir about two young artists scraping by in NY circa 1970. Both of them, and quite a few of their friends, became famous (and controversial). Patti Smith really captures both the idealism and the gritty reality of living as a "starving artist."
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