I've discovered that happiness is leaving yourself be — silencing the accusatory voices in your head and embracing all your contradictions.
Students push you to defend what you believe, and you had better be ready to acknowledge your contradictions, and even your mistakes.
"If I have to summarise this book in one sentence, which would be very difficult," he says, "it is this: accept your contradictions.
His students treasure his Delphic pronouncements: "Polarize your contradictions!" "End on an image and don't explain it!" "Never apologize!" He is, famously, a sound giver of romantic advice, seemingly incapable of embarrassment, intensely curious, present, and incorruptible.
(No one's a mind reader, which is not to say that many of us don't expect this quality in a mate. Who wants to keep having to tell someone what you need?) What you need is for your mate to understand you -- your desires, your contradictions, your unique sensitivities, what irks you.
The answer, over and over, in arresting cinematic statements, is: be complex and embrace your contradictions.
Self-knowledge allows you to see what causes you pain and conflict, and enables you to embrace your contradictions and inconsistencies.
Again, act certain in your "logical contradiction" or they'll just think you're a poser.
Then, there's you -- with all your beautiful and intricate contradictions, your accomplishments and dreams, and your steadfast reasons for why things are the way they are and how they could (or, perhaps, couldn't) be any better for you.
Pick your own contradictions.
