David Milch on imagination & ego - trusting the uncertainty of creative expression

Richard Laurence Baron — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:55:00 +0000

Morning, Douglas. Susan Kirkland led me to your blog after you referenced hers.

I was more particularly struck by your post about David Milch. I was reminded of something said by Mel Brooks in a Playboy interview perhaps 30 years ago, which I still recall. Brooks said, "I am the creator of the vision. I alone know what I want to achieve." Or words to that effect.

Thanks for your collection of thoughts. RLB in Houston.

David Milch on imagination & ego - trusting the uncertainty of creative expression

Katrina — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:31:00 +0000

Throughout my academic career, I was required to outline my work before I wrote it — including speeches I gave in a freshman public speaking class. I always had to create the work (or speech) first — then outline — because I had only a vague idea, before I sat down to write, what the work would look like.

Even when I was writing editorials and columns for the campus paper, I never knew what I was going to write until I wrote it — I would sit down thinking of one subject, and find an entirely different one forming under my fingers on the keyboard.

When I’m working as an actor, I call it “getting out of my own way.” If I’m thinking about what I’m doing, then I’m not doing it. I have to let go and trust my instincts and my intuition–trust that I know what I’m doing as an actor, trust that I will feel when it’s right and when it’s not.

There is a time for structure in the creative process — but there is also a time to let go and trust that what is needed will come.