Reads tagged with “letters”

How to Bear Your Suffering: The Young Poet Anne Reeve Aldrich’s Extraordinary Letter to Emily Dickinson
“It is only through the gates of suffering, either mental or physical, that we can pass into that tender sympathy with the griefs of all of mankind which it ought to be the ideal of every soul to attain.”

200 Years of Great Writers and Artists on the Creative and Spiritual Rewards of Gardening
Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Oliver Sacks, Rebecca Solnit, Bronson Alcott, Michael Pollan, Jamaica Kincaid, and more.

Darwin’s Greatest Regret and His Deathbed Reflection on What Makes Life Worth Living
“If I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”

The Creative Urge: John Coltrane on Perseverance Against Rejection, the Innovator’s Mindset, and How Hardship Fuels Art
“Innovators always seek to revitalize, extend and reconstruct the status quo in their given fields… Quite often they are the rejects, outcasts, sub-citizens, etc. of the very societies to which they bring so much sustenance.”

Sylvia Plath on Living with the Darkness and Making Art from the Barely Bearable Lightness of Being
“One has to shut off that nagging part of the mind and go on without it with bravo and philosophy.”

Control for Surrender: Henry Miller’s Stunning Letter to Anaïs Nin About the Value of and the Antidote to Despair
“When you surrender, the problem ceases to exist. Try to solve it, or conquer it, and you only set up more resistance.”

Carl Jung on How to Live and the Origin of “Do the Next Right Thing”
“There is no pit you cannot climb out of provided you make the right effort at the right place… do the next thing with diligence and devotion.”

How (Not) to Be a Writer: Chekhov on the Task of Art
“Anyone who says that the artist’s sphere leaves no room for questions, but deals exclusively with answers, has never done any writing or done anything with imagery.”

Rilke on the Relationship Between Solitude, Love, Sex, and Creativity
“There is only one solitude, and it is large and not easy to bear… People are drawn to the easy and to the easiest side of the easy. But it is clear that we must hold ourselves to the difficult.”

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