I’m nearing the end of a first draft of a new book, and I’ve just written a scene that was very hard to do, both technically and emotionally. I’m not sure if it will stand in the novel’s final version, but I sort of think it will, maybe because it was so hard. And so I am thinking of this deservedly famous quote from Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet” (though I am neither young nor a poet, this is advice I take to heart):

“Beware irony, ignore criticism, look to what is simple, study the small and humble things of the world, do what is difficult precisely because it is difficult, do not search for answers but rather love the questions, do not run away from sadness or depression for these might be the very conditions necessary to your work.”

Now I am going to restore myself with a sit outside in the afternoon sunshine…