Alain de Botton
Dec. 8, 2011
How to Start
*The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.* Alain de Botton
Tags: Alain de Botton · quotes for writers
Sep. 23, 2010
What “finished” means to a writer
“Only by declaring a book completely finished can one start to see how much remains to be done on it.” — Alain de Botton
Tags: Alain de Botton · quotes for writers
Sep. 19, 2010
The Wages of Worry
“It seems the only way to write a half decent book is to worry oneself sick on an hourly basis that one is producing a complete disaster.” — Alain de Botton
Tags: Alain de Botton · quotes for writers
Apr. 17, 2010
Tweet of the Day
“The only mood in which to start writing is self-disgust. Writing becomes an act of atonement for procrastination — and ‘self-waste.’” — Alain de Botton, master Twitterer
Tags: Alain de Botton · quotes for writers · Twitter
Apr. 15, 2010
Only Disconnect
Two recent tweets by Alain de Botton capture the way I’ve been feeling lately: Awkward mathematics of my profession: for every one hour of actual writing, I need four hours of daydreaming. So cruel that the machine I use for concentrated, slow thinking is also, in another window, more exciting than any TV could ever [...]
Tags: Alain de Botton · web fatigue
Feb. 19, 2010
The Tweeted Wisdom of Alain de Botton
Selections from the Twitter feed of Alain de Botton, a master of the tweet. The attraction of the melancholic: sadness has created the room we’re going to take up in their lives. We can only envy people towards whom we feel equal: it would not occur to anyone to envy the queen for her house. [...]
Tags: Alain de Botton · Twitter
