I've been thinking about this passage by Eggers, from that year-2000 Harvard Advocate interview, for precisely two months, ever since I saw it quoted in Rob Brezsny's humanity-celebrating anti-horoscope. (About which I enthused to a Times reporter a millenium ago. Hi Brian!)

Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.

Since this was published, some people went through all of high school and half of college. Isn't that amazing? How did this change them? What kind of critics will they be? I can't follow Eggers' prescription to the letter, but I'm trying to wait until all the facts are in, in general.