If something is published, it will be read: this is an inevitable reality. But it is good to think that this will never happen, because then one can create with tranquility and independence. There is something beautiful and solemn about this silence that accompanies the creation and, more often than not, the reception of a work. It is an illusory but extremely stimulating silence, and has been present in most of the great works ever conceived. If he thinks of the natural breaking of this enchantment, the artist will judge it best never to publish anything, and therefore should not do so: he should allow himself to be deluded, and enjoy the stillness as if it were guaranteed and eternal.
Perhaps There Is No More Pleasurable Feeling…
Perhaps there is no more pleasurable feeling than that which springs forth as laughter in the face of the most bitter circumstances. A sincere laugh, that crosses the spirit and manifests itself fully, as if radiating through every molecule. Finally, life, and to hell with it! Without a doubt, it takes a lot of maturity to experience it, and the representation of the great sage as the one who allows himself a serene, perennial, carefree laugh is quite right. There is a transcendent dimension in this laughter that springs forth as the outcome of a tremendous spiritual effort.
Those Who Are Impressed by the Power of Love…
Those who are impressed by the power of love certainly do not know misanthropy, a feeling that is infinitely more powerful and that does not detach itself from the one it dominates for a single second. Every aspect of reality reminds of it and reinforces it; it cannot be stripped for any activity. The intellectual stimulation it provides is indescribable, and he who experiences it finds himself always perfecting it, regardless of how he lives and what surroundings he is used to. If the misanthrope gives his neighbor an opportunity, he reinforces his misanthropy; if he does not, he reinforces it anyway. Therefore, he almost always lives in a planned manner, and every action that he performs or relegates takes on a clearer meaning and has more easily measurable consequences. Misanthropy amplifies every act and every feeling, and renders any manifestation that might cause it to give way of an extraordinary singularity.
Great Art Springs From a Non-Artistic Motivation
Great art springs from a non-artistic motivation; great art is what it becomes after being shaped by the artist. Making art for the sake of making it can only beget lesser art, and the examples are so abundant that it is correct to say that superior art will always be, to a greater or lesser extent, autobiographical. One does not need to know Shakespeare’s biography to know him, since his work proves what issues his mind was occupied with while he was alive. Shakespeare would not be who he is if he conceived his plays from the artistic effect he intended to produce; just as Dostoevsky would never have the same vitality if he wrote novels from “artistic motives”. Art is the form given to a motivation that does not require an artist to manifest itself—or to understand it.