ποΈ On Fire & Curiosity
I have noticed that when all the lights are on, people tend to talk about what they are doing β their outer lives. Sitting round in candlelight or firelight, people start to talk about how they are feeling β their inner lives. They speak subjectively, they argue less, there are longer pauses.
To sit alone without any electric light is curiously creative. I have my best ideas at dawn or at nightfall, but not if I switch on the lights β then I start thinking about projects, deadlines, demands, and the shadows and shapes of the house become objects, not suggestions, things that need to done, not a background to thought.
-Jeanette Winterson