On page 42, Hugh talks about the arguments people have about “Commercial vs. Artistic.” Then he nails what is a more interesting subject.

To me, itʼs not about whether Tom Clancy sells truckloads of books, or a Nobel Prize Winner sells diddlysquat. Those are just ciphers, a distraction. To me, itʼs about what YOU are going to do with the short time you have left on this earth. Different criteria altogether.

Frankly, how a person nurtures and develops his or her own “creative sovereignty,” with or without the help of the world at large, is in my opinion a much more interesting subject.

And I see this applying in a much broader view. There are times to quarrel and hash things out in the space of ideas. But the more interesting question to care about is, “What am I going to do with this life I have been given?”