Anais Nin - "We write to taste life twice..."
I've been thinking about what Anais Nin has to say about writing. I like what she says about writing as breathing, singing and what not. And in particular I love this one.
"We Write to Taste Life Twice"
And this makes me realize that I write because I want to live. And to truly live is to taste life twice. To truly live is to truly love and to love is to taste the feeling again.
I learnt very early about the five senses - we all do. The sense of touch, sight, smell, hearing, taste. And some of us are lucky enough for parents, teachers, mentors, lovers etc. to teach us before we grow up that the sixth sense is a combination of all five and much more.
And when I learnt writing, I realized that I was using at least one or two senses in describing anything or any incident that I was reliving. But then this use of senses while writing wasn't planned, it wasn't intentional either. It was more with a thought of bringing to memory the one thing that made the strongest impression on my mind. And then describing it would make me feel like that incident was alive again and the object or the person was right there.
I was almost 27 when I first learnt that the more senses you use when you write, the more alive the writing is. It was a learning because a teacher taught me that. I started using the tool and noticed the change. It's true.
And the more I did of it while writing poetry and while writing memoirs, the more alive my poetry became. Did it become more alive because I used the right tools? OR did it actually become more alive because the tools helped me relive and retaste my life again?
I now believe that the latter holds more truth than the former. And with that said, We do write to taste life twice. And I enjoy tasting it again and again so I read and re-read as well :)
© Anupama Garg
I've been thinking about what Anais Nin has to say about writing. I like what she says about writing as breathing, singing and what not. And in particular I love this one.
And this makes me realize that I write because I want to live. And to truly live is to taste life twice. To truly live is to truly love and to love is to taste the feeling again.
I learnt very early about the five senses - we all do. The sense of touch, sight, smell, hearing, taste. And some of us are lucky enough for parents, teachers, mentors, lovers etc. to teach us before we grow up that the sixth sense is a combination of all five and much more.
And when I learnt writing, I realized that I was using at least one or two senses in describing anything or any incident that I was reliving. But then this use of senses while writing wasn't planned, it wasn't intentional either. It was more with a thought of bringing to memory the one thing that made the strongest impression on my mind. And then describing it would make me feel like that incident was alive again and the object or the person was right there.
I was almost 27 when I first learnt that the more senses you use when you write, the more alive the writing is. It was a learning because a teacher taught me that. I started using the tool and noticed the change. It's true.
And the more I did of it while writing poetry and while writing memoirs, the more alive my poetry became. Did it become more alive because I used the right tools? OR did it actually become more alive because the tools helped me relive and retaste my life again?
I now believe that the latter holds more truth than the former. And with that said, We do write to taste life twice. And I enjoy tasting it again and again so I read and re-read as well :)
© Anupama Garg
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