M.C. Escher “I wish I’d learn to draw a little better! How much…

…effort and persistence it costs to try and do it well. Every once in a while the stress of it all drives me to the point of a nervous breakdown. It is really strictly a matter of persisting tenaciously with continuous and, if possible, pitiless self-criticism. I believe that to produce prints the way I do is almost strictly a matter of wanting so terribly much to do it well. Talent and all that are really for the most part just baloney. Any schoolboy with a little aptitude can perhaps draw better than I; but what he lacks in most cases is that tenacious desire to make it reality, that obstinate gnashing of teeth and saying, “Although it can’t be done, I want to do it anyway.”

snakes – 1969