well ain't that something

it amazes me. imagine conor oberst sitting in his kitchen chair, writing a song. he is writing from personal experience, trying to capture the exact momentum of some past event. months later, I go to the record store and find him talking directly to me. he must have known. I know. and I am by far not the only one who feels like that.

it excites me so much to open a book and find I have been having the exact same ideas and thoughts. someone else must have found himself in a similar condition to mine, must have had similar doubts and problems. it is weirdly and wonderfully comforting and consoling. and I tell you, it happens with ancient greek, or sturm und drang literature, with schiller, and whitman.

someone once told me that as an artist, one should not only spring from personal experience. but what else is there? maybe it is the artist's privilege to do exactly so, in order to create art that has the power to reach people personally and individually. by that, I don't mean artists must only work with what they empirically know, but maybe start from there.