Is there anything you know now about your career that you wish you knew when you started out?
That being a novelist is no fun, so it’s worth at least trying to be a playwright. Then again, fun isn’t high on my list; it’s more of a self-respect agenda. As Richard Ford said in the Guardian: “Don’t take any shit if you can possibly help it.”
~ Hilary Mantel / Guardian, 4th October 2020
Never think you’re better than anyone else, but don’t let anyone treat you like you’re worse than they are.
~ Rip Torn / Esquire, May 2001
“Only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.”
~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“Marcus agrees with Epictetus that it is foolish for us to worry about what other people think of us and particularly foolish for us to seek the approval of people whose values we reject. Our goal should therefore be to become indifferent to other people’s opinions of us. He adds that if we can succeed in doing this, we will improve the quality of our life.”
~ Irvine, William B. / A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (p. 168). Oxford University Press.
“I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”
~ Hunter Thompson
“The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others — who are, after all, deceived easily enough”
~ Joan Didion
“When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.”
~ Mark Twain