Thought provoking

When you have something to say, to express, any submission becomes unbearable in the long run. One must have the courage of one’s vocation and the courage to make a living from one’s vocation. The “second career” is an illusion! I was often broke too, and I always resisted any temptation to live any other way than from my painting... In the beginni... See more

There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag — and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you whe... See more

‘I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved, all the cities I have visited.’

“That is part of the beauty of all literature . You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”

The longer you live abroad, the more you realize you’ll always be a bit of an outsider, no matter where you are.

Only a fool or an egomaniac would deny that chance shapes the vast majority of life. The time, place, culture, family, body, brain, and biochemistry we are born into, the people who cross our path, the accidents that befall us — these dwarf in consequence the sum total of our choices. Still, our choices are the points of light that flicker against ... See more

You get lucky this time because of something you already did, something you didn’t do as preparation, but as exploration. Luck is not the result of trying to get lucky; it is the result of being busy, productive, energetic. The more you do, the more opportunities you will find, be able to recognise, or be well suited to.

This is an insight that has been repeated by artists, too. Pablo Picasso: “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” James Baldwin: “Perhaps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone.” Bob Dylan: “To be creative you’ve got to be u... See more

Said this to a friend but it applies to many:

I think you have a good guess what you should be doing, and there is no need to overthink it. Just decided that for the next 3 months you will execute on your inkling. After that, you can evaluate if you want to try something different. Course correcting too often than eats your bandwidth.

Exa bite quoted... See more