Never be precious about your art. Be precious about it getting done. But, treat it like a job. Show up. Shut up. Put up. Then, get some rest and do it all again the next day. Leonard Cohen had a hell of a line. I was always working steady but I never called it art. I love art. I love both the word and what the word stands for. What I don't love is how folks treat it. Art is no different than a cabinet that needs building, a floor that needs laying, a wall that needs painting or a toilet that needs scrubbing. It's a job. A damn good job. But, a job nonetheless. If you can see your art as a job that needs to be done and if you can take this responsibility seriously, you can build a vocation for yourself that you yourself respect. Fuck the accolades. Fuck the applause. Fuck the audience. None of that shit matters. I know you think it matters because a lot of days I think it matters too. But, no amount of external validation will ever rival that feeling––that hallowed feeling––of having sacrificed a part of your life creating something that previously didn't exist. It's like sitting beside God in a pair of shitty lawn chairs, sharing a smoke, reaching in the cheap plastic cooler wedged between you, admiring the home you just built. It's like fucking the love of your life in a motel room as an invading army marches the streets. Art is the best job you will ever have. You just have to treat it as such.