what you're aiming for, because if you don't try to be the best, you won't even be good. This observation has been made by so many people in so many different fields that it might be worth thinking about why it's true. It could be because ambition is a phenomenon where almost all the error is in one direction — where almost all the... See more
“Give up trying to create something sophisticated,” I told myself. “Why not forget all those prescriptive ideas about ‘the novel’ and ‘literature’ and set down your feelings and thoughts as they come to you, freely, in a way that you like?”
My wife is a painter, and I’ve been paying a lot of attention to her journey these past few years, because she has never put her work online. She might never, because, to put it online is to ask people to have a reaction. To put it online is to say there’s an opinion beyond her own that matters. To her, that’d be a real sacrifice to do that.... See more