One must be ruthless with one's own writing or someone else will be.
Interpretation
Be strict and honest with your own writing to avoid criticism from others.
This quote suggests that writers should critically evaluate their own work to improve it; failing to do so might lead to others judging or criticizing their writing harshly. In essence, it emphasizes the importance of self-discipline in the creative process, implying that artists or writers have a responsibility to refine their craft proactively.
In practice
In a writing workshop, to stress the importance of self-editing.
There is no such thing as Freedom (though it is the most important condition of human life, after Humility, -which does not exist either). There is only Slavery (walls around one) and absence-of-Slavery (ability to walk in any direction, or to remain still).
We must travel in the direction of our fear.
Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business.
Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns, we ourselves flash and yearn, and moreover my mother told me as a boy (repeatedly) 'Ever to confess you're bored means you have no inner Resources.' I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
I do strongly feel that among the greatest pieces of luck for high achievement is ordeal. Certain great artists can make out without it, Titian and others, but mostly you need ordeal. My idea is this: the artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business: Beethoven's deafness, Goya's deafness, Milton's blindness, that kind of thing.
How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said it before.
I am not cruel, only truthful.
Do what you can on this plane to relieve suffering by constantly working on yourself to be an instrument for the cessation of suffering. To me, that's what the emerging game is all about.
With no other privilege than that of sympathy and sincere good wishes, I would address an affectionate exhortation to the youthful literati, grounded on my own experience. It will be but short; for the beginning, middle, and end converge to one charge: NEVER PURSUE LITERATURE AS A TRADE.
Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later a collection of mistakes is what is called experience.
The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.
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