PHIL SIMON
At the risk of being overly opinionated at 4:30 am, it’s hard for me to agree with anyone who creates art solely for mass approval. I write books, articles, and blog posts because I believe in what I’m writing. I derive an immense internal satisfaction from good prose and have for years.
In the din of our times, it’s easy for things to get lost in a near-constant stream of information. We just don’t have time to read everything that we’d like.
Yet, on occasion, you reach someone with your words–and it feels great.
This happened to me this morning with Wayne Hurlbert’s review of my book.
Do I need constant validation? No, and I never have. At the same time, though, it’s just an amazing feeling when something that you created finds an appreciative audience, no matter how large. I suspect that musicians, actors, artists, and other writers feel the same way.
By the way, I’ll be appearing on Wayne’s show tonight.
What makes you create?
Phil – I think it was Michael Stipe of REM that said, “The great realization for me was when I realized that these feelings I had inside of me were also in other people.” I create because there’s gonna be someone out there who says, “Exactly!” If people throw money at you because of it, so much the better…
Or, quoting another sage of our time: “We’re not this way because we’re in a band – we’re in a band because we are this way.” – David Lee Roth
– Steve
Twitter: @SJPutman
Actually, Roth, Stipe, and I all have less hair than twenty years ago. Great minds…
The feeling that I have a certain, quite narrow expertise in a very particular niche that might be of interest (or even use) to others treading the same path – that’s what makes me create. It’s nice to think you’re being read though!