Selfish When You Create, Generous When You Share

When it comes to writing, I’ve always been as selfish as
possible.

With the production,
I write what I want, when I want and how I want. With the process, I don’t do drafts, I don’t use editors and I’m not
interested in constructive feedback. And with the positioning, I never think about my ideal reader, I don’t care what
will work in the marketplace and I’m not worried about people who don’t get the
joke.

The purpose of creation is liberation. To make something to
call my own. To have a body of work I can point to. One that that nobody can
take away from me.

The most
important word in an artist’s vocabulary may as well be mine.

Being selfish isn’t just our right, it’s our responsibility.

Until the work is done, that is.

Once I press the publish button and ship something out the
door, all that selfishness vanishes like a fart in the wind, and into the jaws
of generosity I go.

A copy of my new book?
You bet. Here, take mine. Take the whole case. Seriously, put your wallet away. Actually, keep it out. I’ll pay you to read it. Twenty dollars sound good?
Thirty? Better make it fifty. Say, can you break a hundred? That’s cool. Just
keep the change.

The second most important word in an artist’s
vocabulary may as well be here.