I’ve been thinking about “solitude” and its connection to writing. Having our thoughts and ideas to ourselves, and how that translates to paper—to our audience.

The rampant flow of our thoughts, the spiritual aspect of that, and how we return with that divinity to our writing. When you realize how some of the most religious/spiritual leaders of our lifetime (from Moses, Jesus and even the Buddha) have sought solitude, it makes you realize how necessary it is for everything we do, no?

President Herbert Hoover, our 31st President, known to many for his laissez-faire approach to business during the Great Depression (other historians, however, disagree with this), was also—apparently—known to seek quietness.

“President Hoover’s reference to solitude as the only opportunity ‘for refreshment of one’s soul and clarification of one’s thoughts’ seems to have slowed up for a moment the machinery in his own engineering, electrical, mechanical, time-saving age.”

—New York Times, Mr. Hoover’s View of Solitude / 17 November 1929