Quotes About Validation

Do you need someone to make you a paper badge with the word WRITER on it before you can believe you are one? God I hope not.

When I went in, my editor said, 'I hope you don't think you're a writer.' And I said, 'I hope you don't think I'm a journalist.' And, uh, turned out we were both right.

Anytime that another artist or a critic that is well-respected says something nice about you, you're always thankful and hope that you can live up to that.

In our inherent contradictions as humans, and in order to validate our own pain, we deny the pain of others. But it is in acknowledging the pain of others that we achieve fully our humanity.

No one has the right to destroy another person's belief by demanding empirical evidence.

There is something about hearing your president affirm your humanity that you don't know what effect it has until you hear it.

If you tell a joke in the forest, but nobody laughs, was it a joke?

Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.

I get mail; therefore I am.

If I like it, I say it's mine. If I don't I say it's a fake.

If a writer writes poems and short stories and novels, but nobody ever reads them, is she really a writer?

Why was the judgement of the disapproving so valuable? Who said that their good opinions tended to be any more rational than those of generally pleasant people?

Come on, if you don't win tonight it doesn't mean you're not a good person, it just means you're not a good actor.

I can last two months on a good compliment.

I've always felt I deserved a wider audience, so thank you for reading this.

You don't need everyone to like you, just the right one(s)!

Will you read this? I think maybe it sucks. Or maybe it's awesome. It's probably awesome. Tell me it's awesome, okay? Unless it sucks." — Nick

Self-publishing a shitty book doesn't make you an author any more than singing in the shower makes you a rockstar or squeezing your pimple makes you a dermatologist.

Do not share your thoughts with people who think that what you are thinking is not worth thinking.

The desire to see and the desire to ratify what one has seen are desires at odds with one another, if only because they proceed from separate places in the imagination.

Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don't swallow it.

Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been erected to a critic.

Nobody needs to prove to anybody what they're worthy of, just the person that they look at in the mirror. That's the only person you need to answer to.

Be a good listener...It makes the person who's speaking to you feel loved,cared for and worthy of being heard.