David Johnston: Inspiration
Color photograph of the interior of a gothic cathedral

I am a habitual churchgoer. At least once a week, I set my evil self aside, tell him I’ll meet him later and then I go and participate in worship with a community.

I also have to set aside whatever writing I’m obsessing over at the time. I can’t sit in church and think how to fix the ending. I mean, I can but I’m terrible at multi-tasking.

Once worship is over, however, I often do have a new thought for how something might work a bit better. Setting aside my obsessions for a few hours allows me to look at it differently, to notice the light catch on another angle.

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Color photograph of a white man with short, dark hair wearing a light blue dress shirt open at the collar
David Johnston

is an award-winning playwright, librettist and screenwriter. His plays include Coney, Conversations On Russian Literature, a new adaptation of The Oresteia, Candy & Dorothy, and Busted Jesus Comix and with composer Jeffrey Smith the chamber opera, Why Is Eartha Kitt Trying To Kill Me?