This past year has been a hard one for a lot of us, with deaths and other losses piling up. It hasn't been so easy on the planet, either. Climate change, war, gleeful destructive thievery by people, governments and corporations everywhere along that sad continuum from callous to downright evil. There's a lot of work still to be done.

As a writer, nothing I do is of any direct use. This is true of all art. The best I can do is keep asking questions, hoping the framing of a question will spark the start of an answer in someone else. I know a lot of you are writers, too, and some work in other arts. What we do has nothing on tilling fields, carrying water or patrolling streets; still, it's hard, especially if you're honestly trying to give it your all.

So here, to take you into the new year, are some words of advice. They don't come from me, but from two dancers, a painter, a writer, and the architecture studio in which I spent my grad school years. If any of these help any of you through some moment in the coming year when you've decided you and your work are inadequate, I'll be grateful.


"For an artist, there is no satisfaction whatsoever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching." -- Martha Graham

"Every dance is too long." -- Doris Humphrey

"Painting is like hand-stuffing a mattress." -- Franz Kline

"There are three rules for writing novels. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are." -- W. Somerset Maugham

And from the third floor west architecture studio: "Four things are true of every design: it's bigger than you want, it's smaller than you need, it's more costly than you hoped, and it's less wonderful than you imagined."

Have a joyful, productive, and peaceful new year. And get back to work.