My Basic Philosophy

This applies to writing, life, and everything else.  Especially playing the banjolele, which I play so poorly that it may be responsible for the rash of birds falling dead from the sky.  I think this is an old Buddhist thing, but I may have made it up and I forgot and now think it's an old Buddhist thing.  So it might be a middle-aged Buddhist thing.  Either way:

If you want to dig a gold mine, save the trouble and kill yourself now.  On the other hand, if you want to dig a mile-deep hole, you're in luck!  Because you might even find gold at the bottom.

Everything I do, I do because I love digging mile-deep holes.  The minute I'm digging for gold, it's over.