The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “letters”

Why Emotional Excess is Essential to Writing and Creativity
Why Emotional Excess is Essential to Writing and Creativity

“Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.”

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What Makes a Great City: Anaïs Nin on the Poetics of New York
What Makes a Great City: Anaïs Nin on the Poetics of New York

“Just bring your own contents, and you create a sparkle of the highest power.”

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How Alfred Hitchcock Changed One Boy’s Life
How Alfred Hitchcock Changed One Boy’s Life

“Many times it takes such a spark as this to help a youngster out of his shell and on the road to confidence.”

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The Interplay of Inspiration and Work Ethic: Tchaikovsky on Creativity and Productivity
The Interplay of Inspiration and Work Ethic: Tchaikovsky on Creativity and Productivity

“A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.”

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This Is a Monomania: Balzac on Falling in Love
This Is a Monomania: Balzac on Falling in Love

“I cannot bring together two ideas that you do not interpose yourself between them.”

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Tchaikovsky on the Paradox of Patronage and the Challenge of Retaining Creative Freedom in Commissioned Work
Tchaikovsky on the Paradox of Patronage and the Challenge of Retaining Creative Freedom in Commissioned Work

“I should be guilty of artistic dishonesty were I to abuse my technical skill and give you false coin in exchange for true only with a view to improving my pecuniary situation.”

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A Lesson in Entrepreneurship, Perseverance and Publishing from Iconic Chef Julia Child
A Lesson in Entrepreneurship, Perseverance and Publishing from Iconic Chef Julia Child

“Don’t for the love of heaven let anybody rush you into anything.”

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Henry Miller on the Beautiful Balance of Giving and Receiving
Henry Miller on the Beautiful Balance of Giving and Receiving

“It’s only when we demand that we are hurt.”

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Hemingway Shoots His Cat
Hemingway Shoots His Cat

“Have had to shoot people but never anyone I knew and loved for eleven years. Nor anyone that purred with two broken legs.”

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Vita Sackville-West’s Love Letter to Virginia Woolf
Vita Sackville-West’s Love Letter to Virginia Woolf

“I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia.”

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