On Creativity

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To h[er]... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, h[er] very breath is cut off from h[er]. [Sh]e must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency [s]he is not really alive unless [s]he is creating.”  Pearl S. Buck