juliana ong

But maybe average isn’t so bad. Maybe we can do a lot with average. When we can’t aim for the top, what do we aim for? To be free from the endless artifice of our own invisible boxes. To be moved. To get to the juicy center right now. To tell the truth. To make art, to read poetry, to pop the bubble of the illusion that life’s long enough for... See more

I think it is possible that social media might feel exactly the way that my diary feels to me. Which is that—until you post it, it doesn’t feel like it’s done yet. Or until you post something, you don’t exist. Or maybe until like X-number of people see the post, it hasn’t really finished happening yet. And, you know, for me, obviously the audience... See more

If you want to sell music, you must love those songs. If you want to succeed in journalism, you must love those newspapers. If you want to succeed in movies, you must love the cinema.

But this kind of love is rare nowadays. I often see record labels promote new artists for all sorts of gimmicky reasons—even labels I once trusted such as Deutsche... See more

I think that part of people's problem is they're not in enough gangs. There's this great tension in life where you desperately want to belong to something else and you want to stand apart at the same time. You want to be special, but you want to be accepted, too.

What I'm learning is that it is important to be decisive and go after what you want, but at the same time let go of wanting things to work out a certain way.

Some might describe this as not being attached to outcomes. I call this the willingness to let life surprise me, or the willingness to live in a world of 'maybe'.

Marriage was an economic institution in which you were given a partnership for life in terms of children and social status and succession and companionship. But now we want our partner to still give us all these things, but in addition I want you to be my best friend and my trusted confidant and my passionate lover to boot, and we live twice as... See more