Thanks for the gems

I enjoyed this interview with André 3000, whose new album dropped today. I liked his thoughts on anxiety, and I liked his thoughts on art. Emphases mine.

And as far as anxiety and that kind of thing, yes, I have been diagnosed with that. But I realized that, like, life is life, man. Our grandparents didn't have these terms to describe these things, you know? They didn't have these diagnoses to describe these things. They may have been going through similar things, but they just had to live through it. That's what it is. Life is life and life will come at you in different ways, and it's for you to pay attention to what's happening. I don't feel worse or better than anybody else. I feel like what comes to you is for you.

I just use it as an instrument, just like it uses me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for these, what they call "ailments" and all this kind of stuff. I don't want to lean on it. And a lot of times, because now we have a name for it, we're starting to lean on these names and kind of like really dig into these names and really just try to just figure yourself out. And I'm not sure if sometimes you may give yourself a disservice once you start calling the boogeyman, the boogeyman. Then you start looking for it. So it's like, just live and take it day by day, man. Everything won't be great. The only thing I can say: Learn how to ride the roller coaster. The best thing you can do is learn how to ride the roller coaster with your hands up.

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As an artist, you got to have really strong antennas. And that's really what it's about. So where I am now is where I'm supposed to be. I couldn't plan it. And here's the cool thing. Yes, we can plan it, our limited human brains can plan it. But it's always greater and more magical when you're surprised by these things... I've seen artists transcend themselves and I get emotional about it.

When I see rappers go to a certain level, I'm sure they didn't know. Because I didn't know. So I know they ain't know. But that's the magic. So y'all just looking at the magic show, and it's nothing special. I'm not special. Everybody has a certain kind of magic show.