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40 books
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31 voters
JoAnn Brown
https://www.goodreads.com/joannbrown
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“You get to keep making art as long as you are willing to make the choices that let you make your art.”
― The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
― The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
“Sometimes the essay is where we end up when everything that we know must change.”
― The Lost Origins of the Essay
― The Lost Origins of the Essay
“. . . None of us are born as passive generic blobs waiting for the world to stamp its imprint on us. Instead we show up possessing already a highly refined and individuated soul.
Another way of thinking of it is: We're not born with unlimited choices.
We can't be anything we want to be.
We come into this world with a specific, personal destiny. We have a job to do, a calling to enact, a self to become. We are who we are from the cradle, and we're stuck with it.
Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.”
― The War of Art
Another way of thinking of it is: We're not born with unlimited choices.
We can't be anything we want to be.
We come into this world with a specific, personal destiny. We have a job to do, a calling to enact, a self to become. We are who we are from the cradle, and we're stuck with it.
Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.”
― The War of Art
“In Boston they ask, how much does he know? In New York, how much is he worth? In Philadelphia, who were his parents?”
―
―
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
―
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
―
Goodreads Librarians Group
— 326133 members
— last activity 2 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
Around the World in 80 Books
— 31339 members
— last activity 23 hours, 9 min ago
Reading takes you places. Where in the world will your next book take you? If you love world literature, translated works, travel writing, or explorin ...more
JoAnn’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at JoAnn’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
2,862 books
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143 friends
3,539 books
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211 friends
4,110 books
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175 friends
1,223 books
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32 friends
731 books
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601 friends
3,913 books
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2,464 friends
401 books
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17 friends
87 books
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3,747 friends
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Biography, Book Club, Food, Historical fiction, History, Literary Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Politics, Science, Travel, War, Literature, and Food
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