"I think what I’ve learned most in my writing adventures this summer—and in the past two years of my MFA—is that the recipe for a writer isn’t how well-read you are or how much you know about craft; it’s an equal amount of self-confidence and self-doubt. Someone who believes he/she is destined to be a great poet isn’t going to work as hard as someone who isn’t quite sure, and the poet who only doubts will never really be a poet at all. Our work will only be as complex as we ourselves are."

--Bryanna Lee at her blog [Some Cliche]

I'm three years into a four year MFA, and even though I haven't had to return to the real world just yet, this balance of self-confidence and self-doubt rings true to me.