doubt
You want to be someone who has a tolerance for uncertainty and doubt, which means that you have the possibility of growth. Because if you keep the contradictions alive, if you keep the dialectics spinning, there’s the possibility of change.
Tony Kushner, quoted in the Signature Theatre Company’s summer 2010 flier welcoming him as the 2010–2011 twentieth anniversary playwright-in-residence.
Doubt is my boon companion, the faithful St. Bernard ever at my side. Whether writing essays or just going about daily life, I am constantly second-guessing myself. My mind is filled with “yes, buts,” “so what’s?” and other skeptical rejoinders. I am forever monitoring myself for traces of folly, insensitivity, arrogance, false humility, cruelty, stupidity, immaturity and, guess what, I keep finding examples.
“The Essay, an Exercise in Doubt,” New York Times, February 16, 2013.