he said

oh… they’re right.

being a writer or an artist or even a person in the world walking around dealing with other people

there will be a still small voice in your head that says

the most terrible negative nonsense

about how you are horrible at this, or mean to that person

or stinky or old or naive or out of touch or phony

and there will be this little

tiny

teensy

faint

peep

that says

tony pierce you are the best in the fucking world

and i love you.

at least thats what mine says.

and if you are going to put yourself out in the world as a public writer or artist or musician or

just dude proclaiming here i am here i am here i am

the echo you get back will often be a mixture of stfu with oh god please stfu.

there is no way to handle that dynamic

other than handle it.

and from my time in the crosshairs, the best way that i have learned to deal with it, is to learn from mr warhol

and just flat out agree with them.

and then when they’re trying to figure out what just happened,

go on and do your damn thing anyway.

and do your best to make your thing bad ass

cuz lord knows now theyre really gonna let you have it.