I love Elizabeth Gilbert. She’s the author of “Eat, Pray, Love” (I first read that on a road trip with my parents from Nebraska to Seattle…and loved how approachable her writing was) I have found folks familiar with her work often have very mixed reactions. Not me. Her books and talks are some of the few that I like to be sure to slow down and savor because otherwise I am just so disappointed when they end.
“Big Magic“, is her latest and I am just about finished with it. I find myself highlighting and taking notes and rereading parts. Here’s a sampling of quotations:
Q: What is creativity? A: The relationship between a human being and the mysteries of inspiration.
The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.
I believe that inspiration will always try its best to work with you–but if you are not ready or available, it may indeed choose to leave you and to search for a different human collaborator.
Work with all your heart, because–I promise–if you show up for your work day after day after day after day, you just might get lucky enough some random morning to burst right into bloom.
I think society did a great disservice to artists when we started saying that certain people were geniuses, instead of saying they had geniuses.
…art is absolutely meaningless. It is, however, also deeply meaningful.
I find the whole process of creating (especially in the realm of writing) such a mystery…I can sit down to the keyboards with a stirring to write..not even sure what about, and sometimes, original thoughts start to flow, that 30 seconds before I was not aware of. they just start tumbling out of my head. It really is a mystery. I’ve not read any of her books but they sound like something I would enjoy.
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Hi there! Thanks for your comment. It’s a total mystery to me too…based on what you wrote, I think you would like to read her thoughts on this…it borderlines mystical. I think a few of her ted talks also touch on this if you are curious.
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