This is a test.
I read a nice Leonard Cohen interview yesterday. Here are a couple excerpts:
DO YOUR SONGS COME EASILY TO YOU?
No they don’t come easily at all.
DO YOU FEEL THERE’S A TIME WHEN YOU WILL CEASE WRITING?
I think you always feel that, I think you feel it if songs are longer coming and it has happened to better writers than me. If the gift dries up I think the best thing is to turn your back on it and walk away and never look at it again. I find it hard to write songs or anything else, so it’s always on the edge of extinction so if anything comes I’m always grateful for it but if it stopped coming I would hope, I would know and wouldn’t keep pressing it. I think the quality of the work has already in certain instances been too low. I think some of the stuff isn’t too good and wish I’d have held it back.
How do you know when the gift is gone? Leonard Cohen never stopped writing and performing, yet in 1971, he had doubts about the survival of his creativity (I guess he didn’t follow his own advice).
There’s two consciences that debate within the artist’s mind; one likes to say, echoing a few inspiring peers and famous figures, “Never stop! You have failed when you have given up!” while the other, sadly pragmatic conscience says “Stop, there is nothing left. Continue and it will be emotionless and tired.” The first conscience seems like naivety, the second, painful honesty - when creativity is stagnant. But when something does come, everything melts into ecstasy, and you start to believe the first conscience a little more, for a little while.
