John

“I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I'm gone which would not have happened if I had not come.”
― Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children

“An amateur is defensive. The professional finds learning (and even, occasionally, being shown up) to be enjoyable; they like being challenged and humbled, and engage in education as an ongoing and endless process.”
― Ryan Holiday, Ego Is the Enemy

“Things – even people – have a way of leaking into each other,’ I explain, ‘like flavours when you cook. Ilse Lubin’s suicide, for example, leaked into old Aadam and sat there in a puddle until he saw God.”
― Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children

“We all get blocked. We are all plagued by an inner critic. And no one is immune to the creativity-halting effects of negative criticism.”
― Danielle Krysa, Your Inner Critic Is a Big Jerk: And Other Truths About Being Creative