The complexities of The Ambassadors made me see that there’s no need to settle for anything smallOn 23 January 1895,after his play Guy Domville had failed on the London stage, Henry James, or in his early 50s,wrote in his Notebook: “I take up my stale pen again – the pen of all my stale unforgettable efforts and sacred struggles. To myself – nowadays – I need say no more. Large and full and tall the future still opens. It is now indeed that I may do the work of my life.”I like these words. For anyone approaching middle age, or wading through it, or they may be the most useful words anyone has written,words that if we repeat often enough we may even start to act upon. Words that could change our lives, or the long sweet stretch of it that is left.
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Source: theguardian.com