Sometimes I dont understand why my arms dont drop from my body with fatigue, why my brain doesnt melt away. I am leading an austere life, stripped of all external pleasure, and am sustained only by a kind of permanent frenzy, which sometimes makes me weep tears of impotence but never abates. I love my work with a love that is frantic and perverted, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt that scratches his belly. Sometimes, when I am empty, when words dont come, when I find I havent written a single sentence after scribbling whole pages, I collapse on my couch and lie there dazed, bogged down in a swamp of despair, hating myself and blaming myself for this demented pride that makes me pant after a chimera. A quarter of an hour later, everything has changed; my heart is pounding with joy.
About This Quote
About Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was a 19th-century French novelist. Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Creativity — The spark of original thought, invention, and artistic vision