“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.
It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main
obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is
based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting
each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that
you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at
their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot
more fun while they're doing it.”
"Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you're 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It's going to break your heart. Don't let this happen."
"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better."
