Barbara’s studio

* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

This is true for most artists, not only writers.

What I do know – what I’ve spent the past couple of decades learning about myself – is that if I’m not writing, I’m not well.  If I’m not writing, the world around me is slowly leached of its color.  I am crabby with my husband, short-tempered with my kid and more inclined to see small things wrong with my house (the crack in the ceiling, the smudge prints along the staircase wall) than look out the window at the blazing maple tree, the family of geese making its way across our driveway.  If I’m not writing, my heart hardens, rather than lifts. 

Dani Shapiro in Still Writing:  The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life

Comments are welcome!