Anyone who finds himself incapable of grasping the complexities of a work hides his withdrawal behind the most superficial pretext because he has not gotten past the surface.
But instead of spending our lives running towards our dreams, we are often running away from a fear of failure or a fear of criticism.
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Eric Wright
A creative life cannot be sustained by approval any more than it can be destroyed by criticism.
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Will Self
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
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Flannery OConnor
Eccentricity is not, as some would believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions...
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Edith Sitwell
Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, orperhaps of subconsciousness– I wouldn't know. But I amsure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.
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Aaron Copland
