Cracking Up

His name was Clint.
"As in Clint Eastwood?," I asked.
"Yep, my Dad's favourite film star," he replied.
"Are you a bit of a Clint Eastwood character then? I had to inquire.
And then he started cracking up. I never did get a straight answer.

I went looking for a quote today from Alan Watts, one of my very favourite philosophical writers. I found the one I was after but on the way I came across this, via Neil Gaiman, attributed to Alan Watts, on advice for aspiring writers.

"Advice? I don't have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you're writing, you're a writer. Write like you're a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there's no chance for a pardon. Write like you're clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you've got just one last thing to say, like you're a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God's sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we're not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don't. Who knows, maybe you're one of the lucky ones who doesn't have to."

It felt like a good day to put that down as a marker in my journal.