Like This

It’s one thing to suggest something. It’s an entirely other thing to be convinced like this:

“Of the people 100 people I’ve given The Artist’s Way to, maybe ten of them have actually opened the book and done the exercises. Of those ten, seven have had books, movies, TV shows, and made out successful.”
— Brian Koppelman

It’s one thing to watch an eclipse. It’s an entirely other thing to translate the experience like this:

“Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane. Although the one experience precedes the other, it in no way prepares you for it.”
— Annie Dillard

or like this:

“And so this is a lesson I’ve learned, and it’s one that applies to life in general: duration of experience does not equal impact. One weekend, one conversation — hell, one glance —can change everything. Cherish those moments of deep connection with other people, with the natural world, and make them a priority. Yes, I chase eclipses. You might chase something else. But it’s not about the 174 seconds. It’s about how they change the years that come after.”
—David Baron

It’s a rare day in which I don’t think about the last quote, and unlikely that a week passes that I don’t attempt to paraphrase or directly recite either of the first two.