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It’s a Condition, Not a Profession
To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.
–Robert Frost
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I always think you should be totally frivolous as much as you can, and then take the work seriously when it has to be taken seriously. As long as you can keep that balance going, it’s good fun. If it’s only frivolous it’s not fun — it would drive me potty.
I’d never worked with Judi Dench before, but it was wonderful to realize that we worked in exactly the same way. Foolish for most of the time, then focusing on the work, clicking into it very quickly and naturally…
— Jim Broadbent
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When I was in sixth grade, I sat on the front steps of our farm and watched the horizon… I wrote about how the trees looked like they were brushing up against the blue sky. I used hearts for periods.
When I was in another class in eleventh grade, I got a paper back with, “You’ll never be able to do this if you continue to write like this.” I put it right next to my English paper in my scrapbook because life is kind of funny like that, isn’t it?
It took me a long time to figure out what I was born to do. It took me a long time to own it. It took me a long time to chase it and to craft it and to celebrate it.
