No one can advise or help you — no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1963) German poet

Letters to a Young Poet, Letter 1 (17 Feb 1903)

trans. M. D. Herter Norton (1993)