Adam Moss

I sound maddening from your description. I sound like I must have been just a horrible person to work for, but okay. Maddening maybe a little bit.

Yeah, the book is not self-help, so I'm not sure a lot of these things can be learned. I mean, you can get better at everything, but you're either a person who can focus or you can't. You're either obsessional or you're not. You have a high tolerance for tedium, which you need to to be an artist, or you don't. You have drive or you don't. What about taste? You have taste or you don't.

Yeah, the book is not self-help, so I'm not sure a lot of these things can be learned. I mean, you can get better at everything, but you're either a person who can focus or you can't. You're either obsessional or you're not. You have a high tolerance for tedium, which you need to to be an artist, or you don't. You have drive or you don't. What about taste? You have taste or you don't.

Yeah, the book is not self-help, so I'm not sure a lot of these things can be learned. I mean, you can get better at everything, but you're either a person who can focus or you can't. You're either obsessional or you're not. You have a high tolerance for tedium, which you need to to be an artist, or you don't. You have drive or you don't. What about taste? You have taste or you don't.

Or you have a certain sensibility or you have a certain sense of humor. These are all things that you acquire... for all sorts of mysterious reasons that you and I don't understand. No one has ever understood how personality is formed.

Or you have a certain sensibility or you have a certain sense of humor. These are all things that you acquire... for all sorts of mysterious reasons that you and I don't understand. No one has ever understood how personality is formed.

Or you have a certain sensibility or you have a certain sense of humor. These are all things that you acquire... for all sorts of mysterious reasons that you and I don't understand. No one has ever understood how personality is formed.

That all said, the book is, I hope, very encouraging to artists because I think most people who are trying to make things don't need to be James Joyce or Pablo Picasso or Louise Gluck, even. They can be themselves, and they can find... immense joy and satisfaction in making art. They improve their ability to focus. They improve their ability to persevere, to not give up when things get hard.

That all said, the book is, I hope, very encouraging to artists because I think most people who are trying to make things don't need to be James Joyce or Pablo Picasso or Louise Gluck, even. They can be themselves, and they can find... immense joy and satisfaction in making art. They improve their ability to focus. They improve their ability to persevere, to not give up when things get hard.

That all said, the book is, I hope, very encouraging to artists because I think most people who are trying to make things don't need to be James Joyce or Pablo Picasso or Louise Gluck, even. They can be themselves, and they can find... immense joy and satisfaction in making art. They improve their ability to focus. They improve their ability to persevere, to not give up when things get hard.

A lot of art making comes down to something as rudimentary as being able to learn to fail. Again, like parenting, it's a little bit like a child learns to walk because they understand how they can get up from falling. They have to fall.

A lot of art making comes down to something as rudimentary as being able to learn to fail. Again, like parenting, it's a little bit like a child learns to walk because they understand how they can get up from falling. They have to fall.

A lot of art making comes down to something as rudimentary as being able to learn to fail. Again, like parenting, it's a little bit like a child learns to walk because they understand how they can get up from falling. They have to fall.

And I was very well aware of that, that this is a retrospective history of success. And so everything has to be viewed through that lens.

And I was very well aware of that, that this is a retrospective history of success. And so everything has to be viewed through that lens.

And I was very well aware of that, that this is a retrospective history of success. And so everything has to be viewed through that lens.

I wanted very much to give people permission to fail because failure is, if you go through the narratives in the book, there's just failure right and left. When you're trying to create something, your brain is trying to subvert you in so many ways. There are so many obstacles, and there is this kind of animus you need to have in order to barrel ahead. An animus toward what?

I wanted very much to give people permission to fail because failure is, if you go through the narratives in the book, there's just failure right and left. When you're trying to create something, your brain is trying to subvert you in so many ways. There are so many obstacles, and there is this kind of animus you need to have in order to barrel ahead. An animus toward what?

I wanted very much to give people permission to fail because failure is, if you go through the narratives in the book, there's just failure right and left. When you're trying to create something, your brain is trying to subvert you in so many ways. There are so many obstacles, and there is this kind of animus you need to have in order to barrel ahead. An animus toward what?

Animus is the wrong word. You have to have a fighting spirit, I guess I would say, where you're just not going to be daunted. Which, as I was going through this, I found very reassuring. Because, of course, the reason I did the book was because I... I had recently taken a painting and felt enormous frustration, enormous sense of failure in that. And truly, what I didn't understand is in a group,