A whole romantic world subsists on the supposition that one should cultivate spontaneity of feeling and reject all rigid or clearly defined anticipation of spiritual or emotional experience.
This attitude is not restricted to the religious life and is applied to other realms of feeling as well, such as romantic emotion and artistic creativity.
It informs such concepts as "love at first sight" or "artistic inspiration."
In fact, it is precisely in these other realms that one can see the illusory quality of this romantic approach.
Inspiration as the primary source of artistic creativity is no more than an attractive fiction, for spontaneity plays as relatively minor a role in art as it does in philosophical and scientific thinking.
Creative action generally results from a combination of many factors, including subjective preparation, professional training, and a considerable amount of hard work.
A more critical, penetrating observation reveals that existence as a human being depends largely on achieving distance from the pressures of physiological spontaneity and on focusing consciousness on activity.
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From The Strife of the Spirit, p.97 by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz