Quotes about Validation

Now I wanted to be acknowledged, but I feared it.

What were prizes but one more level of control imposed on Art by the establishment?

Don't waste your energy trying to convince people to understand you. Your time is too valuable to try to prove yourself to people.

I don't concern myself with award. I'd been to the party enough times to know it really didn't matter.

And my fear of failure has been lifelong and deep. If you are what you do- and I think my parents may have accidentally given me this idea- and you do poorly, what then? It's over; you're wiped out. All those prophecies you heard in the dark have come true, and people can see the real you, see what a schmendrick you are, what a fraud.

If you're not enough before the gold medal, you won't be enough with it.

I understood immediately the thrill of seeing oneself in print. It provides some sort of primal verification: you are in print; therefore you exist.

only a tiny portion of the audience is looking for the brand-new thing. Most people are waiting for the tested, the authenticated, and the proven.

admit it. When I get a bad review, my feelings are hurt. After all, it would be nice if every critic said a title of mine was a breakthrough, an inspirational, thoughtful book that explains how everything works. But sometimes they don't. Which is about enough to ruin my day.

It's great at this stage in my life to still be in the running, that people appreciate you.

What other people think is more important than what we feel.

Grief is a form of validation; it says the wound mattered. It mattered. You mattered. That's not the way life was supposed to go.