Ink from a Bottle

...everything, even ink, had a purpose and a meaning: Good ink cannot be the quick kind, ready to pour out of a bottle. You can never be an artist if your work comes without effort. That is the problem with modern ink from a bottle. You do not have to think. You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn. But when you push an inkstick along an inkstone, you take the first step to cleansing you mind and your heart. You push and you ask yourself, What are my intentions? What is in my heart that matches my mind? -- Amy Tan

Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
December 04, 2002

Comments

I like this, ink as a metaphor for thought, the action of using a brush on stone as a metaphor for writing. I liked what Amy Tan says about the surface of our thoughts, the "scum", the flotsam. On my wall at work I have a quote by the English writer Martin Amis which says, "All writing is a campaign against cliche. Not just cliches of the pen but cliches of the mind and cliches of the heart." How to tap our true thoughts.

Comment by: jbl. Posted December 17, 2002 10:29 AM.

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