#21: Art Comes From Talking to Yourself

I read a short story today that made me grateful to be alive. It reminded me of places that I’d been, of who I’ve been and who I want to be, of the struggles that I face in life and the questions I ask myself.

Today, I am grateful for the person who wrote that story. I am grateful that he spent hours and hours writing it, editing it, getting feedback on it. I am grateful he spent days alone in his room, at coffee shops, at home, working on it and making it say something beautiful.

I think all great works come from this alone place, the place where someone decides to make something and then goes in and does it. It’s a pressure cooker.

This is the formula for art: Real life experiences and pain + hours alone of talking to oneself alone in a room or working alone = ideas that change people.

Somewhere in the world right now, there is a standup comedian telling jokes to no one in their living room; there is a sketch writer talking to herself out loud while trying to figure out how to end the sketch; and there is someone imitating the birth of a baby colt by forcing herself through a folding chair in her bedroom.

Wow, art.