John Cassavetes on Creativity and Self-Censorship
You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all.
—John Cassavetes
You have to fight every day to stop censoring yourself. And you never have anyone else to blame when you do. What happens to artists is that it’s not that somebody’s standing in their way, it’s that their own selves are standing in their way.
The compromise really isn’t how or what you do, the techniques you use, or even the content, but really the compromise is beginning to feel a lack of confidence in your innermost thoughts. And if you don’t put these innermost thoughts on the screen [or on paper] then you are looking down on not only your audience but the people you work with, and that’s what makes so many people working out there unhappy.
These innermost thoughts become less and less a part of you and once you lose them then you don’t have anything else… Say what you are. Not what you would like to be. Not what you have to be. Just say what you are. And what you are is good enough.
Most people don't know what they want or feel. And for everyone, myself included, it's very difficult to say what you mean when what you mean is painful. The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to...
As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all, we must dare to fail. You must have the courage to be bad - to be willing to risk everything to really express it all.
Ah - so painfully true. Every day. But the path inwards is rewarding. You never know what you'll find until the day is over.
This is THE struggle: "What happens to artists is that it’s not that somebody’s standing in their way, it’s that their own selves are standing in their way."