As you head home for a weekend of reading and writing, we have a simple piece of advice from the great author Alan Watts: “Forget the money.”
When actor and director Lena Dunham scored a major deal this week, the Internet sagged under the weight of frustrated writers arguing about money. This beautiful video clip from Tradgedy annd Hope dramatizes a simple but powerful lecture from Watts, reminding us why we write. Doobybrain transcribed a bit from the video:
When we finally got down to something that the individual really wants to do, I will say to them: “You do that and forget the money.” Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing. Which is stupid! Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way. And after all if you do really like what you’re doing it doesn’t matter what it is, you can eventually become a master of it. The only way to become a master of something is to be really with it.
Read more about the life and writings of Watts at this link.