Connection, after all, is the opposite of alienation. In the best-case scenario, someone would read my books or this column and feel seen and less alone. I got it tattooed on my left wrist after I’d published a memoir to remind myself that whatever someone’s reaction might be to my work, the most important thing was connection. I seek understanding of others and, by extension, of myself. I use it to remind myself that the motivating force behind everything I do – writing, speaking, feeding the cat – is connection. Over the years, it has become something of a mantra for me. In that book, Forster writes about connecting our inner and outer lives as well as understanding each other as individuals beyond class or social divides. It’s a maxim made famous in his masterpiece Howards End. The tattoo in question is E M Forster’s quote ‘Only connect’.
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