Why Emotional Excess is Essential to Writing and Creativity “Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.” BY MARIA POPOVA The third volume of Anaïs Nin’s diaries has been on heavy rotation in recent weeks, yielding Nin’s thoughtful and timeless meditations on life , mass movements , Paris vs. New York , what makes a great city , and the joy of handicraft . The subsequent installment, The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947 ( public library ) is an equally rich treasure trove of wisdom on everything from life to love to the art of writing. In fact, Nin’s gift shines most powerfully when she addresses all of these subjects and more in just a few ripe sentences. Such is the case with the following exquisite letter of advice she sent to a seventeen-year-old aspiring author by the name of Leonard W., whom she had ...