For all of my fellow writers, who are far too hard on themselves and everyone else:

"I realized that I always defined myself in terms what I wasn't.....Always what I wasn't, never what I was. But when you do that, you miss the moments. And the moments are all we've got. When I thought I was going to die, even after everything that's happened, I realized I didn't want to let go. I was willing to do it all over again and this time I could appreciate the moments. I can't go back, but I can appreciate what I have right now, and I can define myself by what I am, instead of what I'm not."

"And what are you?"

"Alive. Everything else is negotiable."

-- Sheridan and Franklin in Babylon 5:"Shadow Dancing"