Taco Bell Quarterly

I hope the secret third thing is that people read it

Wish I hadn’t taken so long to understand this, but at least now I can make art.

This plus the Kevin Perjurer quote "the only thing I hate more than making a film is not making a film."

Golly, to all the respondents, I kinda just wanna ask: At what point does "artist dies penniless" stop feeling like the artist in question just wasn't sufficiently zen?

It's so inspirational and devastating at the same time!

This feels related to how I teach indie filmmaking/mediamaking: literally nobody cares about your project (as much as you do), so you have to be entirely ok doing it by yourself.

You found it. This is the secret third thing.

the government doesn’t want you to realize that you can participate in this world’s continuing act of creation which is why you should make art and be a transsexual

i say this to my students a lot and am always surprised when they find it discouraging rather than exciting. no one cares as much as you do whether you write that book! you can write it however you want!

Printing 10,000 notecards of this skeet for next year’s AWP

unfortunately my secret third thing is just that I can't seem to not

It did inspire this post

#AWP2026

Yes

Is it accidentally making eye contact with yourself in the screen while writing and looking away bashfully?

Time to start chewing!

Feeling good about myself? Do we do that anymore

[Me, writing a novel of manners where all of the characters are cats]:

secret third thing: both

My brain trash needs a receptacle

One day my secret third thing is gonna happen

Spite All Day

this is definitely one of mine

prophecies and magic

I believe this!

Weirdly inspiring

This is one of the ways I plan to retire. salmonella or bust

The third thing is touching a book with your name on it and flipping through it and going "wowww how cool"

Real

FREEDOM. F R E E D O M