You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
One paradox of professional writing is that books written solely for money and/or acclaim will almost never be good enough to garner either.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing for money or recognition often leads to poor quality work.
David Foster Wallace highlights the paradox that when writers focus solely on financial gain or fame, their work tends to lack authenticity and quality. True value in writing comes from genuine passion and depth rather than from a desire for external validation, suggesting that success in writing is rooted in sincerity and craftsmanship rather than in the pursuit of accolades or profit.
Themes
WritingSuccessAuthenticityPassionQualityAcclaim
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, to inspire students to write from their heart, quote David Foster Wallace to emphasize the importance of authenticity in writing.
More from David Foster Wallace
All quotes βEverything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.
David Foster WallaceRead
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
David Foster WallaceRead
Under fun's new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don't want to see or let anyone else see, and this stuff usually turns out (paradoxically) to be precisely the stuff all writers and readers share and respond to, feel.
David Foster WallaceRead
Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.
David Foster WallaceRead
Bliss - a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious - lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like youβve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and itβs like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.
David Foster WallaceRead
Similar quotes
Rich, 'the Old Man said dreamily, 'is not baying after what you can't have. Rich is having the time to do what you want to do. Rich is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box of shells. Rich is not owing any money to anybody, and not spending what you haven't got.
Robert RuarkRead
If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.
Colin PowellRead
My greatness does not extend to this shelf.
Victor HugoRead
It's wonderful to know you're aging, because that means you're still on the planet, right?
Goldie HawnRead
Consider whether fulfillment of the goal you have chosen will constitute success. What is success? If you possess health and wealth, but have trouble with everybody (including yourself), yours is not a successful life. Existence becomes futile if you cannot find happiness. When wealth is lost, you have lost a little; when health is lost, you have lost something of more consequence; but when peace of mind is lost, you have lost the highest treasure.
Paramahansa YoganandaRead
Being in humaneness is good. If we select other goodness and thus are far apart from humaneness, how can we be the wise?
ConfuciusRead