From my refrigerator/gallery: j "The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: a human creature born abnormally, in humanly sensitive. To this person 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, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. by some strange, unknown, inward urgency, he is not rally alive unless he is creating."

I've had this around for so many years I can't remember where I got it and who said it. But it completely describes me. I have no choice. I create or die. It's lovely if someone notices. It helps a great deal when I find playmates to create with (e.g. a band, collaborators on a theater project, etc.) but whether or not I get anything back from the external world, I create because I can't help myself.

WW