Diana Athill.

From Write, Never Marry, and Other Love Advice from Simone de Beauvoir's Editor: An interview with acclaimed writer and editor Diana Athill shortly after her 99th birthday.

I really began to write entirely as a healing exercise. I didn't realize that, but that first book I wrote came out of the blue, a good many years after my unhappiness. I had been living carefully enough, working at a very interesting job, having lots of friends. But all during that time, I do know that if I stopped and looked at myself and said, "What is my life?," I would have said to myself, "It is a life of failure." Simply because I'd grown up in a family and at a time when my job was to get married and have children, and I had failed. There was this underlying thing of failure deeply buried. I didn't sit down and say, "I'm going to write that book." It happened. It was a very uncanny experience, and it came easily. And when it was finished, I was healed.

The interview is by Anya Raza, check it out. Athill is 99 and sharp as shit. Goals!

Fail Constantly.

Another gif from Adam J. Kurtz.



There's something about me, and a couple people I know, that often leads us to be paralysed by the notion of failure. It's as if it takes so much energy just to manage our lives, that working up the energy to try something, and then the added prospect of failure, just seems like an awful risk.

But this is a pro-failure post!

Failing at something means trying things! It means being open! Failing constantly means having the spirit and balls (or vagina) to go for it!

Let's all fail more! And be kind to ourselves for that failure! Let's try more! Failure doesn't have to be this massively heavy word! You tried to make a pie without a recipe. You failed. It sucked. Your family ate it anyway and now it's a story. Next time, don't fucking burn it. BOOM. Move on!

♥

Re-post: Raging Peacock on Tumblr.

From Gay for the Void / Raging Peacock on Tumblr.

[gets depressed because feels like a failure] [cant get stuff done because depressed]
this is some Good Shit right here

Blogger doesn't re-blog Tumblr posts. It's a nightmare.