Sunday Morning Musing: The Creative Mind

'The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive. To them… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. 

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off… They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.'

                                                                                                                                                 ~Pearl Buck

Ah, how very true. I stumbled randomly upon this quotation yesterday evening and it struck me as maybe the truest definition of creativity I have ever come across.

Whoever said sensitivity is a curse, need only look to the greatest writers, artists and musicians of the centuries who all seem to have been blessed with an extraordinary talent and who in turn, blessed us with their offerings and understandings of the human condition.

And so to those who ask - why do you write?, why does he paint?, why does she play music so intensely? Well it's because there is no alternative - we are not really alive unless we are creating. It's as simple as that. 


~Siobhán