Personality Zone

To write or not to write?

That is the question!

"You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should avoid most now....Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this question with a strong, simple 'I must', then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even in its humblest and most indifferent hour, must bceome a sign and witness to this impulse."

Rainer Maria Rilke from Letters to a Young Poet