Member-only story
The Creative Act
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I can’t act. I have never acted. And I shall never act. What I can do is suspend my audience’s power of judgement till I’ve finished.
I believe that God felt sorry for actors, so he created Hollywood to give them a place in the sun and a swimming pool — the price they had to pay was to surrender their talent.
~ Sir Cedric Hardwicke
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In advanced age, my health worsening, I woke up in the middle of the night, and experienced a feeling of happiness so intense and perfect that in all my life I had only felt its premonition. And there was no reason for it. It didn’t obliterate consciousness; the past which I carried was there, together with my grief.
And it was suddenly included, was a necessary part of the whole. As if a voice were repeating: “You can stop worrying now; everything happened just as it had to. You did what was assigned to you, and you are not required anymore to think of what happened long ago.”
The peace I felt was a closing of accounts and was connected with the thought of death. The happiness on this side was like an announcement of the other side. I realized that this was an undeserved gift and I could not grasp by what grace it was bestowed on me.
~ Czeslaw Milosz
