The Observer has a piece about the nature of inspiration, including various artists’ thoughts about it at the end. Novelist Naomi Alderman says:
It’s wonderful when you notice something inspiring unravel before your eyes. I remember hearing a rabbi give a sermon about this once. Inspiration is an aspect of the divine. You are given a gift of a flash of lightning, a moment. The rabbi said it’s as if you are walking in the dark, with no streetlights and no moon, then there’s a flash of lightning and you can see the steeple of the place you are going to. But to actually get there you still have to walk in the dark. And all you can do is to try to keep in your mind that sudden flash on the horizon. That’s exactly what it’s like.
(Via Jenny D.)
What a lovely, lovely quote. Just when I’m hunting around for a little inspiration while I grope in the dark towards the completion of a novel. Thanks for highlighting it…and for pointing the way toward Jenny D. from time to time. I have now bookmarked her and made her part of the regular blog circuit!