We have to look at our own inertia, insecurities, self-hate, fear that, in truth, we have nothing valuable to say. read more

We have to look at our own inertia, insecurities, self-hate, fear that, in truth, we have nothing valuable to say. When your writing blooms out of the back of this garbage compost, it is very stable. You are not running from anything. You can have a sense of artistic security. If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.

One must be truthful with oneself about one's own motives, especially if one is to survive in the world. It read more

One must be truthful with oneself about one's own motives, especially if one is to survive in the world. It takes rigor, and it takes courage.

I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it's no problem for me to believe that I'm read more

I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it's no problem for me to believe that I'm somebody else.

To see ourselves as others see us can be eye-opening. To see others as sharing a nature with ourselves is read more

To see ourselves as others see us can be eye-opening. To see others as sharing a nature with ourselves is the merest decency. But it is from the far more difficult achievement of seeing ourselves amongst others, as a local example of the forms human life has locally taken, a case among cases, a world among worlds, that the largeness of mind, without which objectivity is self-congratulation and tolerance a sham, comes.

Seek always for the answer within. Be not influenced by those around you, by their thoughts or their words.

Seek always for the answer within. Be not influenced by those around you, by their thoughts or their words.

One day I sat thinking, almost in despair; a hand fell on my shoulder and a voice said reassuringly: cheer read more

One day I sat thinking, almost in despair; a hand fell on my shoulder and a voice said reassuringly: cheer up, things could get worse. So I cheered up and, sure enough, things got worse.

Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward.

Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward.

I have never been contained except I made the prison.

I have never been contained except I made the prison.

In my day, we didn't have self-esteem, we had self-respect... and no.

In my day, we didn't have self-esteem, we had self-respect... and no.