Status Updates From Witness to the Fire: Creati...

‘I, like many others, was susceptible to “bad faith” by wanting to be “above” it all. The fatal flaw of The Judge is wanting to be above the disease of addiction, and at the deepest level, above the finite human condition, to want to be so special that one does not deserve the “unjust” treatment of having a disease.’

‘When you’re playing, you are being your soul over and over. Playing music is the soul’s struggle to be in the fullest way, to keep learning new things and to have that show in the musical expression. When you play you have to face yourself over and over again in your limitations. You’re on the line from minute to minute.’

‘Perhaps our addictions are similar to Rilke’s dragons which can turn into princesses: if we turn and face them, there lies the surprise of the divine.’

‘It is a mistake to reduce the life and work or the creative person to his disease. But it is also a mistake to ignore a disease such as addiction and romanticize its relation to creativity.’

‘Intenseness and duration are as ancient enemies as fire and water. They are mutually destructive. They cannot co-exist.’