You don't always need what you want - Version 3

Someone, perhaps Russian, wrote that nothing harms a family like having a writer in it, though perhaps harm is proportional to talent so I shouldn’t worry so much about what I say.


Kosovo said ‘I’d rather be a bad artist than a loser’ – and I basically agree. At 38 there’s a real possibility that negative attention is at least attention, compared to the silence of space that has met all the writing that no one has ever seen. Time to get over myself.

But remember that the inner censor’s goal at least is quality. There is some dignity in having more passable work than you are willing to show, and remember too, not to hurt people just to get a laugh.