Plenty has already been written about Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat Pray Love.
I wanted to share with you the part I loved the most*—the writer’s advice on pursuing your passions.
Doing what you love
A lot of people have written to Gilbert about how to become a writer.
And on her website, she shares this food for thought:
In the end, I love this work. I have always loved this work. My suggestion is that you start with the love and then work very hard and try to let go of the results. Cast out your will, and then cut the line.Please try, also, not to go totally freaking insane in the process.
Insanity is a very tempting path for artists, but we don’t need any more of that in the world at the moment, so please resist your call to insanity. We need more creation, not more destruction.
We need our artists more than ever, and we need them to be stable, steadfast, honorable and brave –– they are our soldiers, our hope. If you decide to write, then you must do it, as Balzac said, “like a miner buried under a fallen roof.”
Become a knight, a force of diligence and faith. I don’t know how else to do it except that way.
As the great poet Jack Gilbert said once to young writer, when she asked him for advice about her own poems:
“Do you have the courage to bring forth this work? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say YES.”
Good luck. —Elizabeth Gilbert’s thoughts on writing, posted on her website
*Okay this is actually my second-favorite part of the experience of reading Eat Pray Love and learning more about the author—the first is one of her descriptions, smack in the middle book.
The image: finding perfect stillness on a rooftop in India and doing a handstand there, alone, just to mark the quiet.
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