read through earlier entries. they’re about considering whether or not to give up law for romance studies. and there are already thoughts of perhaps enrolling in an art school. what are you considering now? giving up painting? that doesn’t need to be considered in so decisive a manner because the decision will happen on its own, the precipitation of a decision, as in chemistry when a solid is precipitated out from a solution.

Anselm Kiefer, 12 September 1998, in Notebooks: Volume 1, 1998–1999, translated by Tess Lewis