“I do believe you have a wound too. I do believe it is both specific to you and common to everyone. I do believe it is the thing about you that must be hidden and protected, it is the thing that must be tap danced over five shows a day, it is the thing that won’t be interesting to other people if revealed. It is the thing that makes you weak and pathetic. It is the thing that truly, truly, truly makes loving you impossible. It is your secret, even from yourself. But it is the thing that wants to live. It is the thing from which your art, your painting, your dance, your composition, your philosophical treatise, your screenplay is born.”
Quote by Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart Kaufman (b. 1958) is an American playwright, film producer, theater and film director, and an Academy Award, BAFTA, and Independent Spirit Award-winning screenwriter. Often regarded as one of the finest screenwriters of the 21st century, his work explores themes of death, insecurity, the artistic process, and the passage of time. He may be best known for writing the screenplay (and eventual movies) Being John Malkovich.
REFLECTION:
- What wound do you have that is kept secret perhaps, even from yourself?
- Can you rip the bandaid and expose this wound?
- What can be born if you let this secret live?