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Yesterday, as well as being New President Day, it was the birthday of illustrious film maker David Lynch.I recently finished reading his book "Catching the Big Fish", a very personal account of his approach to creativity, and the role that meditation plays in it.
I have often felt that techniques like meditation may result in bland art, due to lack of "pain", a deluded idea partly inspired by Captain Kirk (I'll explain another time). Mr Lynch is a very good example of how this is not the case.
In the book he writes:
"Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a a story, but they're like poison for the film maker or artist. They're like a vice grip on creativity. If you're in that grip you can hardly get out of bed, much less experience the flow of creativity and ideas. You must have clarity to create. You have to be able to catch ideas."
Here is a little seen, very short film by Mr Lynch:
