You don't have to feel bad about yourself

I've been coming across quite a few interesting quotes and paragraphs from people - not even necessarily successful people sometimes - and I've been so tempted to create posters out of some of them. But really, there are too many, and they are sometimes too good for me to do justice to them.

Or maybe I'm just too starstruck and looking at them through gooey eyes.

Since I've been reading them over a few days, I don't have them all with me now, but here's one I think is pretty interesting and simple:

Patti Smith, Musician and writer

If you attach anything harmful to the creative process, you have to do that... I've seen a lot of people go down because they attach a substance to their creative process. A lot of it is purely habitual. They don't need it, but they think they do, so it becomes entrenched. Like, I can't go without my coffee. I can go without drinking it, but I can't go without it nearby. It's the feeling of how cool I feel with my coffee. Because I don't feel cool with this tea. [Bollen laughs] You know, there are pictures of me with cigarettes in the '70s, and everybody thought I smoked. I can't smoke because I had TB when I was a kid. But I loved the look of smoking - like Bette Davis and Jeanne Moreau. So I would have cigarettes and just light 'em and take a couple puffs, but mostly hold them. Some people said that was hypocritical. But in my world, it wasn't hypocritical at all. I wasn't interested in actually smoking them. I just liked holding them to look cool. 

from the99percent.com


I like how honest she is about doing something just to look cool. Not enough people admit their insecurities like that. And what sticks to me is how the interviewer sums it up:

As an artist, you kind of have to buy into your own romance a bit when you are making work.

It makes me feel less guilty about my style of working :)