Last night at Lang, the novelist Camille DeAngelis spoke about her new book, Life Without Envy: Ego Management for Creative People. Here are a few key lines—great advice for us all, about happiness—from the book, which has the quality of spiritual memoir:

Make a sincere effort to examine your own ego, delving into uncomfortable emotions with honesty and compassion, and you will find it in you to be happy—lastingly happy—no matter how your career is (or isn’t) going, and regardless of anyone else’s achievements or opinions.