Eric Whitacre tweeted this yesterday:

Sometimes I imagine a sleep deprived, burnt out writer, that on the verge of tears and giving up, finds a copy of a wonderful book like The Little Prince or The Great Gatsby lying around and begins to read. And through it, they rekindle the love they once had for books, stories and beautiful sentences. They notice quirks in a character or flickers in a scene that make their imagination soar and heart race, to which they realise that it was this feeling through reading that inspired them to write in the first place, all those years ago.

I think this is part of the reason why writers read books, musicians watch concerts and painters attend exhibitions. On one practical hand, these activities equip one with the latest trends in literature, music, and painting, that they can use to enhance their craft.

But crucially, these moments of quiet consumption remind one of the beauty in their uncertain craft and rekindle their fire for creating good work. For it is sometimes not enough to work all the time – we forget why we do it in the first place. These moments of respite, in times of confusion and frustration, remind us what it is all about.