Nobody can advise and help you, nobody.
There is only one single means.
Go inside yourself.
Discover the motive that bids you write;
examine whether it sends its roots down
to the deepest places of your heart,
confess to yourself whether you would have to die
if writing were denied you.
This before all:
ask yourself in the quietest hour of the night:
must I write?
Dig down into yourself for a deep answer.
And if this should be in the affirmative,
if you may meet this solemn question
with a strong and simple
“I must”,
then build your life according to this necessity…
Excerpted from Letters to a Young Poet – Rainer Maria Rilke
Leave a Reply