“I am a … writer”. That’s how it starts. Elizabeth Gilbert is a bit of a romantic comedy character : studying and living in NYC, she used to write in magazines and did quite a few different things for a living (cook, waitress, etc …) until she wrote a New York Times best seller : Eat Pray Love. Not very good critics but tremendous success – romantic comedy indeed.

In this talk she speaks about creativity and how to lighten the burden of genius in each of us.

Baseline : in ancient Rome, artists HAD a genius that came and visit them. With Renaissance, human is put right in the center of the universe : artists ARE genius. This is a mistake which put a huge pressure on artists shoulder and doom them with anxiety, hence the very high numbers of artists that died before their time.

It’s like asking them to swallow the sun.

20mn of empowering witty wisdom to bring art and creativity back at mortal human reach. (I facebooked it a while back but I feel more comfortable heavymentaling it as it fits here nicely).