Writer as Cynic

“A writer has got to be a cynic. You’ve got to look at life clearly. No rose-coloured glasses. The human race is not very admirable. It was a big mistake of God’s.” – Taylor Caldwell

Bullshit, Ms. Caldwell.

Apparently she was a very successful author, so the philosophy worked out well for her, but – no.

I don’t want to write about a world I don’t admire. I don’t want to live in a world I don’t admire.

And that’s lucky, because there isn’t one. There’s a world I admire like crazy. There’s a world full of terrible, horrible, no-good things, sure, but it’s fuller of better things. People who say and do and think things of tremendous beauty. People who are things of tremendous beauty. That’s not looking through rose-colored glasses. That’s just how it is. Not admirable? That’s just not looking at all.