Dealing With Your Critics

Jean Cocteau died of a heart attack in 1963, at age 74, within hours of learning of the death of his close friend Edith Piaf. His epitaph reads, "I stay among you." "Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work," he advised writers and artists. "Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like — then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.