The following is an excerpt from Phoebe Gloeckner’s Mistake House Magazine interview that speaks directly to the creative process:

Internalized censors are always the most dangerous impediments to genuine expression. Dangerous because they are the most difficult to resist.

Censorship imposed from the outside is often invigorating. It’s different from having your work ignored or discounted, which is pretty dreary. If your work has been censored or banned, you’ve hit a chord, you’ve caused an emotional reaction. It forces you to look at your work from another perspective. Which can be inspiring. “Why is this group of people offended by what I’ve done?” You compare this to your own motivations and your process of creating the work in the first place. If you feel your work has been misunderstood or misinterpreted, you might amplify your message, because clearly, you’ve hit a nerve; there’s something important that shouldn’t be repressed.

Art (writing, visual art, comics, etc.) is inevitably a reflection of society. Great creative works of any kind can show you or remind you of what you feel. There is always artifice involved in any creative work; the great lie will expose the truth. That is always the challenge; what is the “truth”? What is genuine? The truth may be unpleasant or mundane, upsetting or uplifting. The truth is what the author decides it to be—-what threads are being followed, or woven, what threads are left to fray? Any situation, or person, or place, can be examined from countless perspectives.