Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.

— David Bowie, at fifty, surfaced by Maria Popova. Just before it: “It’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations — they generally produce their worst work when they do that.”