Anyone who mindlessly renounces his own beliefs may be a criminal. But the one who forbids himself to form beliefs is surely a creator.
“I don’t have any conscience, not even the conscience of an artist: I only have nerves…” – said Ryunosuke Akutagawa**. He was far from politics and believed that everything is possible for a man of art. Joseph Brodsky interpreted the phrase in his own way, and it became close and understandable to me. The comical aspect of our position is that, in our youth, we were accused of lacking or failing to hold convictions. Now, when we, along with the beard, are overgrown with beliefs, they become our jailers. And we cease to feel life, to react with a nerve, to think freely. Anyone who mindlessly renounces his own beliefs may be a criminal. But the one who forbids himself to form beliefs is surely a creator … «
* Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996) — Russian and American poet, essayist, Nobel Prize in Literature.
** Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) — Japanese writer, classic of new Japanese literature.