The Soul's Code

''Most artists are brought to their vocation when their own nascent gifts are awakened by the work of a master. That is to say, most artists are converted to art by art itself. Finding one’s voice isn’t just an emptying and purifying oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses. Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced. Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.'' ― Lewis Hyde (The Gift)

"Every artist joins a conversation that's been going on for generations,
even millennia, before he or she joins the scene." - John Barth

''What needs to be counted on to have a voice? Courage. Anger. Love.
Something to say; someone to speak to; someone to listen.'' - Terry
Tempest Williams (When Women Were Birds)

When you engage in a work that taps your talent and fuels your
passion -- that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn
by conscience to meet -- therein lies your voice, your calling, your
soul's code." - Stephen Covey