1. "So you want to be an Artist?"
Don’t.
Don’t be an artist if you want the fame, the recognition or money.
If you want to show others what you can do, don’t.
If you want to hold a ‘cool‘ artistic skill that makes you feel above others, don’t.
If you want to be “No.1“,
If you can replace what you do with a tool, don’t be one. (AI?)
Be one,
– If it comes to you.
– You cannot Not do it.
– You’d rather quit your job than not draw.
– If you have something to say.
Then, Be One.
2. Inspired by Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski wrote a little piece of advice for folks aspiring to write.
And it was
“Don’t be one”
“If it doesn’t come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut, don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen or hunched over your
typewriter searching for words, don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or fame, don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want women in your bed, don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
If you’re trying to write like somebody
else, forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you, then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you, do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.
don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have yawned themselves to
sleep over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen, it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.”
This was one of the most powerful things I have come across.
It says that you should be ‘moved‘ to write for internal reasons and not for external validation or wants.
And that apparently is the difference between writing that makes you feel alive and one that makes you dead.
3. Favourite Quote of the week
“When you die, this will go in the trash alongside all your other achievements”
– Ryan holiday (Inscription on his grammy award)
Also, here’s a Not so Secret video for the week 👀
That’s it for this week folks!
See you in the next one 🙂
Best,
Kesh.
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