“Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”
— Susan Sontag
advice
On hard work and patience
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
(T)
“If you could see the you that I see, when I see you seeing me, you would see yourself so different, believe me.”
(T)
Tips
I’m pissed, here’s some advice:
- When it comes down to people, and what they do, there is no such thing as normal.
- You can’t control how you feel, but you can control how you feel about how you feel.
- Don’t eat things that come from sad animals.
- Everything is connected.
- If you want someone, and they don’t want you back, try not to take it personally.
- Avoid time wasters.
- The brain you already have inside your head is probably the best piece of technology that will ever exist. User guides are available.
- Don’t trust people who tell you how to live.
(T)
An Englishman in New York
“Persistence is your greatest weapon. It is in the nature of barriers that they fall. Do not seek to become like your opponents. You’ll have the burden and the great joy of being outsiders. Every day you live is a kind of triumph. This you should cling on to. You should make no effort to try and join society. Stay right where you are. Give your name and serial number and wait for society to form itself around you because it most certainly will. Neither look forward where there is doubt nor backward where there is regret. Look inward and ask not if there is anything outside that you want but whether there is anything inside you have not yet unpacked.”
Dearest absurd child
“I am perhaps happier now than I have ever been and yet I cannot but recognise that I would trade all that I am to be you, the eternally unhappy, nervous, wild, wondering and despairing 16-year-old Stephen: angry, angst-ridden and awkward but alive. Because you know how to feel, and knowing how to feel is more important than how you feel. Deadness of soul is the only unpardonable crime, and if there is one thing happiness can do it is mask deadness of soul.”
—Stephen Fry’s letter to his 16-year-old self
via Mabel
Good vs. Bad Art
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide whether it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they’re deciding, make even more art.”
‘stay with the things that draw you like a magnet’
“Fail early and get it all over with. If you learn to deal with failure, you can raise teenagers. You can abide in intimate relationships. And you can have a worthwhile career. You learn to breathe again when you embrace failure as a part of life, not as the determining moment of life.”
Paul Greer 