Saw these two quotes on Lifehacker today. They both apply nicely to the craft of writing:
“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
This one is similar but goes a bit deeper:
“For me, pushing myself is way more about ‘It’s hard to make something that’s interesting.’ It’s really, really hard, and I’m sure we don’t succeed with every story on every show. Basically, anything that anyone makes…It’s like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that’s written or anything that’s created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity. It’s all tending toward mediocrity in the same way that all atoms are sort of dissipating out toward the expanse of the universe. Everything wants to be mediocre, so what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is an act of will. Anyone who makes something for a living, or even not for a living, if they’re really excited about it…You just have to exert so much will into something for it to be good. That feels exactly the same now as it did the first week of the show. That hasn’t changed at all. That’s the premise of what it takes to make something.”
–Ira Glass, the host and executive producer of This American Life