The pain of admiration, awareness, appreciation, and knowledge is understanding the beauty of something someone created, and realizing that you may never enjoy something of your own as much.
This is what I think when I read Kurt Vonnegut, or Philip K. Dick, or listen to the lyrics of Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger.
Joseph D. Newcomer 
For me, there’s the admiration I have for other creatives and I try to keep it apart from how I feel about my work. Still, comparisons come up. And I try to remind myself to instead compare my current to older work. There’s growth, and that helps in the whole thought process.
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Absolutely, Dave! We can be inspired and aspire to be as great as what we appreciate, but even though it’s difficult a lot of the time to not compare ourselves to others, it’s best to only compare ourselves to ourselves. Couldn’t agree more.
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I will never write as well as Samuel R. Delany. I will live my life failing. But i’ll have fun in the mean time.
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That’s all we can really do, right?
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I feel the same way about Ray Bradbury’s writing!
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He’s brilliant!
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