Rilke on Writing

"Search for the reason that bids you to write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write.  This above all-- ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: must I write?  Delve into yourself for a deep answer.  And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this ernest question with a strong and simple, "I must," then build your life according to this necessity; your life even into its most indifferent and slightest hour must be a sign of this urge and a testimony to it." 


~Rainer Maria Rilke in a letter to Franz Xaver Kappus, February 17, 1903