big-magic-elizabeth-gilbert2

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live in a most remarkable world,thick with mysteries. It all called tomind the British physicist SirArthur Eddington’s memorableexplanation of how the universeworks: “Something unknown isdoing we don’t know what.”But the best part is: I don’t needto know what.I don’t demand a translation ofthe unknown. I don’t need tounderstand what it all means, orwhere ideas are originallyconceived, or why creativity playsout as unpredictably as it does. Idon’t need to know why we aresometimes able to converse freely
with inspiration, when at othertimes we labor hard in solitude andcome up with nothing. I don’t needto know why an idea visited youtoday and not me. Or why it visitedus both. Or why it abandoned usboth.None of us can know suchthings, for these are among the greatenigmas.All I know for certain is that thisis how I want to spend my life—collaborating to the best of myability with forces of inspirationthat I can neither see, nor prove, norcommand, nor understand.It’s a strange line of work,
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Also by Elizabeth GilbertPilgrimsSt
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Trustees of the Estate of the late
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This one’s for you, Rayya
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ContentsTitle PageCopyrightDedicati
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Courage
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Pittsburgh in 1925 and grew up inth
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People were crazy about him. Hecoul
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by the publication of somethingsubl
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furnace of this world.”)He and I
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their lives to be.I never met Jack
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He smiled at the girl withinfinite
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both for its own amusement and foro
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people swing for the bleachers.)No,
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soul-searching, the way one does on
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perhaps, because now, as an adult,s
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transcendence while she is stillher
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courage, let’s try to get you som
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taken seriously.You’re afraid you
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good measure.)You’re afraid of be
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ever go well again.You’re afraid
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earliest memories.Growing up, I was
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indoors, snuggled on my mother’sl
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Afraid of the snow? Time to goshove
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Fear Is BoringOver the years, I’v
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emphatic word, repeated at fullvolu
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Do you see what I mean? You don’t
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The Fear YouNeed and the FearYou Do
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you would lead a short, crazy,stupi
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bloody, horrible death. Basically,y
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without fear marching rightalongsid
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life, and that you take your jobser
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Then we head off together—meand c
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those treasures to light takes work
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An Idea ArrivesNow that we’re don
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government got a notion to build ag
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discovered to their horror that the
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throughout history) that I believe
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With all due respect, I disagree.I
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into the world, the idea will payyo
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buzzy thoughts, that feeling offall
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inspiration’s invitation out ofla
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saying no, no, no, no, no.Then agai
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You will find no shortage of rolemo
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you die, so if you prefer a short l
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living your most creative life, wit
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intriguing and worthwhile. You canl
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hands on it, so to speak. I promise
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Minnesota. She’s a spinster whoha
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I decided I would call the novelEve
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entire life immediately and go join
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I’m forever grateful to that book
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gone missing. What I mean is thatth
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than two years. What was the ideasu
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and catch the next idea that comesa
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his should be the end of my AmazonT
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I thought, My goodness! She’s som
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stood. But what she did next waswon
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casually mentioned in a letter that
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“You go first,” she said, “si
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married boss for many years. Hegets
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pharmaceutical industry. But othert
Page 128 and 129: that Ann Patchett had stolen myidea
Page 130 and 131: that’s why you’ll never be grea
Page 132 and 133: seek the swiftest and most efficien
Page 134 and 135: cultivated, or had never gottenarou
Page 136 and 137: consciousness, I didn’t let it ou
Page 138 and 139: hearing this was one of sheer relie
Page 140 and 141: nonchalant about losing those ideas
Page 142 and 143: same scientific conclusions at thes
Page 144 and 145: looks like inspiration hedging itsb
Page 146 and 147: because—I promise—if you showup
Page 148 and 149: when the poem reached her andpassed
Page 150 and 151: Hard Labor vs.Fairy DustIbelieve in
Page 152 and 153: powerful and generous—and thatsom
Page 154 and 155: and who sometimes aided you inyour
Page 156 and 157: Pinned Beneaththe BoulderIthink soc
Page 158 and 159: lose the ability to take themselves
Page 160 and 161: speak about this predicament frompe
Page 162 and 163: But what does any of that have todo
Page 164 and 165: a lost early manuscript of hers was
Page 166 and 167: Does it seem sacrilegious evento su
Page 168 and 169: even working for a bunch ofdifferen
Page 170 and 171: critic, tellingly, described it as
Page 172 and 173: sometimes like my genius sits in th
Page 174 and 175: grace or not, I thank creativity fo
Page 176 and 177: read State of Wonder knows fullwell
Page 180 and 181: admittedly.I cannot think of a bett
Page 183 and 184: IRemove theSuggestion Boxdidn’t g
Page 185 and 186: school board, volunteered at thelib
Page 187 and 188: When my father grew curiousabout th
Page 189 and 190: that you remove the suggestionbox.I
Page 191 and 192: when it comes to the business ofcre
Page 193 and 194: assertion that gave me the idea tha
Page 195 and 196: ere’s what I’m getting at, dear
Page 197 and 198: the original people who watchedthe
Page 199 and 200: doesn’t, though. Some acts ofarti
Page 201 and 202: interesting and the novel.And inspi
Page 203 and 204: problem-solvers, and embellishers
Page 205 and 206: Ihave a neighbor who gets tattoos a
Page 207 and 208: a short while, so I decided a longt
Page 209 and 210: Because it’s all just temporary.E
Page 211 and 212: Without this arrogance of belonging
Page 213 and 214: like this: “Who the hell do you t
Page 215 and 216: what I am, but I’mcurious enough
Page 217 and 218: what the outcome, and no matterhow
Page 219 and 220: See?Now you’re the one doing thet
Page 221 and 222: said, “We have learned nothing in
Page 223 and 224: MotivesOh, and here’s another thi
Page 225 and 226: burden, rather than to save orrelie
Page 227 and 228: this book for my own pleasure,becau
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It’s okay if your work is fun for
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to have received what I consider to
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Four of them never even got pasthig
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On one hand, I completelyunderstand
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because debt will always be theabat
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a few years of creative study—hes
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schooling in the arts withoutrealiz
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means; I am merely againstcrippling
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learned along the way.If you are a
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things. We need you to reveal to us
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walls of museums; they live inrecor
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education, but never put it intopra
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work every shift, save all mymoney,
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rejected, rejected, rejected,reject
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straight back out into the universe
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awareness I held that I had chosen
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one another carefully, therebyprecl
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out his heart in this letter,compla
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hung it over his desk, as well hesh
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to stop complaining if you want tol
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elsewhere.”I have felt this pheno
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actually mean it.For one thing, it
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talents and abilities? Sure, we can
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then, okay? It will only weigh youd
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It doesn’t matter in the least. L
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point: I’ve published six books
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—nobody reads my books.”Over tw
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other people should not. If I amall
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suppose, she needed to. (It mayhave
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art.Then stubbornly continue making
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so seriously, because—in the fina
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smooth maintenance of the humancomm
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essential or inescapable (food,shel
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Nigeria, or a radical filmmakerunde
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Maybe I won’t always besuccessful
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anyone who was so articulate andwis
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already in the van! You have fivemi
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noticed that his children felt full
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big a deal. He told me, “I realiz
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Otherwise, what’s the point ofhav
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future of humanity depends upon myg
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Persistence
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happen. I retreated to my bedroomon
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for any external rewards for mydevo
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close to it. On bad days, when I fe
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a Southern gothic novelist, because
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day, or studying auto mechanicsever
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Square back in the day. She was afu
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expanding, as if my mind werebeing
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because NYU had granted me adiploma
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for a project just a few weeks afte
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with us—then I could usually gett
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The ShitSandwichBack in my early tw
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the work. Frustration is not aninte
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effects. As Manson writes withprofo
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If you truly want to see theworld,
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Your Day JobThe whole time I waspra
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years, I have watched so many other
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it’s dangerous to be childish.)Ot
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for a while to save up money untili
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me they’re quitting their day job
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wrote in her spare hours. That’sw
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but an ox. The ox had twohandsome h
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made. Most individuals have neverha
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stretch of time in which to create(
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rarely exists here on earth.Melvill
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(If anything, the fact that they ha
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plans for your future organicmushro
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princely, thus attracting ideas and
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dresses like a gentleman, every one
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creativity, and I make an effort to
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because the work never came out ont
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yourself from participation because
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even worse, it often stops peoplefr
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believe, hold themselves to an even
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good enough for the task, somehowgr
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Beethoven’s symphonies a little b
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do? How am I getting in my ownway?
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remain sane. Possessing a creativem
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we forget to eat, forget to pee,for
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forth will destroy you.”—Gospel
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She said: “We all spend ourtwenti
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everyone is too busy fussing overth
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it! I just promised the universe th
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it came to everything from washingt
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In Praise ofCrooked HousesIcould si
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her—that I did not get this chara
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house and completely starting overb
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Rivers did not run backward. Birdsd
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perfect thing, but I still felt it
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always believed in magicalthinking,
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lives, and then gives a Mercedes to
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nothing in realms of creativity.(No
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that I have always discouragedpeopl
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may be the only sanity-preservingwa
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will stubbornly keep trying to make
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purchased a tape recording of somee
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Jones tape, just to see what wouldh
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ready for war. It was as if we’db
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catch hold of that sensation(“cal
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boilerplate rejection letter with a
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its self-addressed stampedenvelope
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wait to publish it.“You even like
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be “This is unequivocal evidencet
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after a certain point—even theani
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little different every day, just as
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So you must keep trying. Youmust ke
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same themes. The only difference is
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is short and should be enjoyed. You
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Trust
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The first question is: “Do youlov
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people have lost that sense ofconve
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So Robin always begins rightthere.
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of them report that writing is tota
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Addicted toSufferingAre you beginni
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do it. Rufus Wainwright onceadmitte
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A Cautionary TaleOne of the most in
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process wasn’t bringing heranguis
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The Teaching ofPainSadly, Katie’s
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Maybe you were even taughtdarkness
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songwriter who battled heroinaddict
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—until he gave up the booze. As h
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refuse to seek personal healing and
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madness with genius feels like alog
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person. I’m with the Britishpsych
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write fiction when I am unhappy. (I
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Choose What toTrustIf you choose to
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would’ve said no.But why wouldn
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work—and I cannot imagine thiswas
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never know, and that creativity wil
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gladness when I was not riding high
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chills that run up my arms, through
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given to you for the mere purpose o
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be.”What’s the difference betwe
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Martyr says: “The world cannever
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ever since. I believe this turn ofe
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back really crooked, or it might be
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Brené writes wonderful books, butt
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But when she tuned in to thepossibi
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waited patiently in the living room
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her new trick worked like a charm.N
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Wyoming, and it was inspired bymy o
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the new, slimmer November issue,or
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ever written, and, as far as I knew
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challenge: Could I still manage tom
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that expanded imagination does totr
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well need to do. You also won’t b
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short stories and feature articles
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just a thing—a thing that I had m
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passion. I don’t believe in telli
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person myself, but not every single
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at times—a distant tower of flame
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clue. Trust it. See where curiosity
Page 537 and 538:
curiosity can lead you.I’ve alrea
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like.I poked about for a while in m
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learn anything about gardening,desp
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back when I was a kid, despite myve
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That was kind of cool todiscover.Th
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completely in my fascination. Ielec
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covered caves of French Polynesia.T
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make no mistake about it—it’s s
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but also once wrote an entire album
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that the biggest problem she seeswi
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Hungry GhostsYou will fail.It sucks
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two.) Just as you need your fear fo
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be satisfied with anything. I have
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has been wounded—never my soul.It
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Do SomethingElseSo how do you shake
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abrupt, but, holy cow—talk aboute
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struggling with a book, I signed up
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“Hey, I never claimed it was myga
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eventually inspiration will find it
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bicycles look a bit nicer. Dutifull
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followed the clue. When he wasdone,
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By doing something else—andby doi
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Well, what could I tell her? Ihate
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differently. I think the fiercestqu
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Walk ProudlyTwenty years ago, I was
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of charming young people, whoturned
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—his new friends had not misledhi
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costume, and he was proud of it. He
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ended up dancing that night with th
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foam claws waving in the empty air.
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Accidental GraceMy final story come
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off their art, and they welcomedtou
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and everyone was happy.Actually, no
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(Were these nice-seeming andfriendl
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some money for the temples. Best of
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everyone could see it. It wasarguab
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mind the entire time.
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serious with us.Make space for all
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Geoffrey Kloske, Cree LeFavour,Cath
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