things to say in the face of paradox

You may think: What’s happened? Good God, are they kidding? But it is a rule of life, alas, that nobody is kidding.

Your psyche demands novelty for progress, but most people get theirs from the endless sources of instant cheap pleasures. Exploring the unknown is how you live in accordance with nature.

I made a decision a long time ago that if I want creativity in my life—and I do—then I will have to make space for fear, too. Plenty of space. I decided that I would need to build an expansive enough interior life that my fear and my creativity could peacefully coexist, since it appeared that they would always be together.

The monolithic uncertainty of my future was deadening; everywhere I turned, the shadow of death obscured the meaning of any action. I remember the moment when my overwhelming unease yielded, when that seemingly impassable sea of uncertainty parted. I woke up in pain, facing another day—no project beyond breakfast seemed tenable. I can’t go on, I th