Just as the creative artist is not allowed to choose, neither is he permitted to turn his back on anything: a single refusal, and he is cast out of the state of grace and becomes sinful all the way through.
ATTRIBUTION:
Rainer Maria Rilke (18751926), German poet. Letter, October 23, 1907, to his wife. Rilkes Letters on Cézanne (1952, trans. 1985).