“Always move towards pain when making art.”
J.M. Coetzee via pieratt
I wasn’t going to post this. I liked it, but it felt too “tumblr” for my sensible ways. But this morning as I’m editing the book, there’s just one fk’n painful thing – editing this one meandering chapter – and I went to the easier things and edited the rest of the entire book.
Move towards the pain.
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
“Life isn’t something you possess, it’s something you take part in.”
Louis C.K.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
“I am in competition with no-one”
… though the other parts of this letter are a bit over-ripe for me.
“First, you need a round hole in your chest that goes all the way through you… Sit or stand in front of paper or a computing device and turn your back to everything, which will incite it to attack you. Everything preys on humanity and goes for the heart, so hold still, arch your back and it should shoot through your hole and onto your keyboard. As it passes, it will be tainted and scattered by the inside rim of whatever you’re made of, which some would call your “voice”but which I call “filth.””
“I am at my emotionally healthiest, or so I would have myself believe, when I have 100 percent transparency of intent and result with as large a sampling of humanity as possible. Blogging was always my most effective form of therapy.”
Dan Harmon via Pieratt
“There are few things more liberating in life than to have your worst fear realized.”
Conan O’Brien via RobinHood Ink.
“Novare Serbando (Renew but conserve)”
Fratelli Branca Distillerie motto, 1850
“I believe strongly in the emotional authenticity of the product.”
Chris Bangle in Objectified