Writing

Real success requires step after step after step after step. It requires choice after choice.

In some ways, you've always been a creature of chaos. The complications of Act II, which will tip all you have been before into chaos, have been set up and abetted by really clever foreshadowing in Act I, by all those slippery you's over the years.

Act III is everything. No matter the strength of the foundation, the assorted catastrophes of the Second Act, if we don't have Act III, we're really in trouble. Will the heroine pull it out in the end, or does she falter?

There is always something left to love.

This act of choosing — the stories we tell versus the stories we leave out — will reverberate across the rest of your life.

Perhaps this self you've been treasuring for so long is itself the work of many hands.

It's not even a question of ethics or self-sacrifice or moral high ground, it's actually totally selfish. Being with people, doing for people, it's going to bring you joy. Unexpectedly, it just feels better.

Hold on to that desire for human connection. Don't let anyone scare you out of it.

Don't assume that exclusive always and everywhere means better. It may only mean lonelier. There will always be folks hard selling you the life of the few: the private schools, private planes, private islands, private life. They are trying to convince you that hell is other people. Don't believe it. We are far more frequently each other's shelter and correction, the antidote to solipsism, and so many windows on this world.

If you're the kind of person who finds the most interesting thing in the world to you is something you don't know, you're probably in the right place.

If you're the kind of person who is scared and courageous at the same time, you might end up doing big things.

Passion is the key reason for choosing a career.