Some interesting words from Guy de Maupassant, in my translation:
Later Flaubert, whom I sometimes saw, took affection for me. I dared to send him some essays. He read them kindly and said to me, “I don’t know if you will have talent. What you have brought to me proves a certain intelligence, but don’t forget that, young man, that talent — in Chateubriand’s words — is nothing but a long patience. Work.”
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