Sunday, March 12, 2006

Adam Phillips on inspiration

in the Observer. At the end of the piece, they've got an interesting little collection of musings on inspiration by an unexpectedly wide range of writers and artists (including Steve Reich, Beth Orton and Mary Midgley). These words are from Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons:

What inspires me? A room, the people and sounds that might be in it, spirits and patterns of light, the past and the future awakening in the present, nature, tides of water and the movement of air, animals and the ways that they move, seeking greater freedom. To me, the creative process is a refuge that one hopes will always be there when you need it. Sometimes the more obvious places are less inspiring than the cramped or inopportune ones.

I have experienced a few really great moments in the course of my life, and most of them have been connected to the creative process, either my own or someone else's. You get a feeling that all the stars are aligned and suddenly reality shifts and embraces something that feels eternal. You look out from a moment like that and everything is as it should be. Even in terrible times, we are still offered that gracious gift of creativity, that possibility to transform, to dream of radical new solutions.

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