Brahms on inspiration

Johannes Brahms wrote to Clara Schumann. whom he greatly admired:

It is from you that I am constantly learning that one cannot obtain vital force out of books, but only out of one’s soul.  One must draw inspiration not from without, but from within.

Cited in: Goss, Madeleine & Schauffler, Robert (1943) Brahms The Master. New York: Henry Holt and Company, p.152.

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