The best advise one can give an aspiring artist is, “Have something to fall back on.” The merit of the instruction is this: those who adopt it spare themselves the rigor of the artistic life.

I was once at a marriage ceremony where the parties swore “to try to be faithful, to try to be considerate…” That marriage was, of course, doomed. Any worthwhile goal is difficult to accomplish. To say of it “I'll try” is to excuse oneself in advance. Those who respond to our requests with “I'll try” intend to deny us, and call on us to join in the hypocrisy—as if there were some merit in intending anything other than accomplishment.

Those with “something to fall back on” invariably fall back on it. They intended to all along. That is why they provided themselves with it. But those with no alternative see the world differently. The old story has the mother say to the sea captain, “Take special care of my son, he cannot swim,” to which the captain responds, “Well, then, he'd better stay in the boat.”

The cops say, “I'm on the corner.” Young folks in the theatre might have it, “Molly can go home and John can go home, I am never going home. Bravo. And good luck.

Those of you with nothing to fall back on, you will find, are home.