Austin Kleon

You know, I think, like, a year from now, it would be my youngest getting through his first year of middle school.

And these are the real moments of... And I mean this sincerely.

The older I get, the less the books mean, the less the work means.

It's really my family.

The only thing I care about is their flourishing and their happiness, really.

The books...

are part of that because it's what keeps food on the table and stuff.

But the most important thing to me is the people in my house flourishing.

And so if we were going to have a bunch of champagne, I think it'd really just be the end of school, getting through another school year, just because we're headed towards the end of the school year.

That's kind of a dodge of your question, but I think that would be it.

But I'm trying to get at your question.

I'm not good at celebrating victories because I'm just not... It feels like by the time the thing happens, I'm already... I want something else, right?

And that's that... I don't know if you call it the hedonic treadmill as much as just the treadmill of life.

But I will say this morning...

was the first time I held the new book in my hands.

And that is the moment where it's like, okay, did we make it work?

Did it happen?

And I told my wife a month ago, I said, look, I don't really care what happens with this one.

I just want to hold this because it's taken so long.

It's been so long since I did one of these.