Make Good Art

By Neil Gaiman

Reviewed Apr 5, 2017 on The Litt Review.

This was a wonderful, cute, small, bite-size little book. Designed by Chip Kidd, it is essentially just a speech given by Neil Gaiman. You can watch the entire thing, here:

I wish more books were bite-sized. I read this standing up in a coffee shop in Montreal, just leafing through it before writing some emails. And, several times through the book, I stopped, and thought to myself, looked out the window. Because it’s good. The refrain - Make good art - keeps pounding its way through the pages, like what I imagine a town crier on a horse must have sounded like galloping through the streets, impossible to ignore.

And when things get tough, this is what you should do.

Make good art.

I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.

I’d like to re-read this every week. It’s good. If you have the chance, watch the video, buy the book. If you don’t, make good art anyway.


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