A couple days ago I did some doodles and wasn’t very happy with them. Today I looked at them and thought, “Hey, these aren’t bad!” I think part of the explanation for these disparate reactions is that when I’m actually in the process of drawing I’m very focused on the process, and hone in on the various flaws. When I have some distance, and just happen to look over the illustrations, I tend to see the big picture and not the little imperfections.

I’ve had the same issue with music. I’ll labor for hours on a recording and decide it’s garbage. Then I come back to it a few months later and think it’s pure genius. The distance of time gives us a kind of “forest not the trees” view of things.

It struck me today this is a bit like relationships. You meet some girl and think, “Boy, she’s gorgeous, she’d never go out with a loser like me.” But, by using alcohol, you summon up the courage to ask her out. So you go out for a while and sleep together, and then you start to notice her various imperfections. And pretty soon, they’re all you notice, so you end up dumping her. And she starts yelling and crying and asking what’s wrong, and you say, “Look, toots — we both knew the name of the game here. We had a couple laughs, but now it’s time for you to make like a banana and get the fuck out of my face!” And she starts throwing things and screaming how she hates you and doesn’t get the whole banana thing and you have to run out the door.

Anyway, I think art and music are a lot like that.