#growth Happy people smile. People who smile are also happy. > Prolific writer **Joyce Carol Oates** on motivation following action: > > "One must be pitiless about this matter of "mood." In a sense, the writing will _create_ the mood. ... I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card, when nothing has seemed worth enduring for another five minutes ... and somehow the activity of writing changes everything." > > _Source:_ [_The Paris Review_](https://click.convertkit-mail4.com/r8ug6grvresohp2r42u3/08hwh9hmz6mkv4hl/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlcGFyaXNyZXZpZXcub3JnL2ludGVydmlld3MvMzQ0MS90aGUtYXJ0LW9mLWZpY3Rpb24tbm8tNzItam95Y2UtY2Fyb2wtb2F0ZXM=)