The only virtue on which I pride myself is my self-doubt; when a writer loses her self-doubt, the time has come to lay aside her pen.
Interpretation
Self-doubt is essential for self-improvement and creativity in writing.
In this quote, Colette emphasizes the importance of self-doubt as a critical virtue for writers. She suggests that doubt allows writers to reflect on their work and remain humble, and once they lose that sense of questioning, it may signal the end of their creative journey. Self-doubt is portrayed not as a weakness, but rather as a necessary component of artistic integrity and growth.
In practice
In a writing workshop, discussing how self-doubt can lead to better revision processes.
It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses.
Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.
I went to collect the few personal belongings which...I held to be invaluable: my cat, my resolve to travel, and my solitude.
You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.
Truffles must come to the table in their own stock and as you break open this jewel sprung from a poverty-stricken soil, imagine - if you have never visited it - the desolate kingdom where it rules.
I did not look for her, because I was afraid of dispelling the mystery we attach to people whom we know only casually.
Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners.
Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting.
Many people come to self-help material because they feel like something is wrong with them or the way they are. The problem is that anything that tells you how to improve your life is also implying that there is something inherently wrong with you the way you are.
Gratitude develops faith. The surest path out of a slump is marked by the road sign "thank you, God."
Brilliant men are often strikingly ineffectual. They fail to realize that the brilliant insight is not by itself achievement. They never have learned that insights become effectiveness only through hard systematic work.
As a vulnerability researcher, the greatest barrier I see is our low tolerance for vulnerability. We're almost afraid to be happy. We feel like it's inviting disaster.
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