Photo: IMAGO/Zoonar.com/Elada Vasilyeva/IMAGO/Zoonar
Photo: IMAGO/Zoonar.com/Elada Vasilyeva/IMAGO/Zoonar

Ideas

James Patterson’s Maxims for a Happy Life

Here’s what I learned about creativity and contentment from the celebrated author.

First published in The Atlantic on December 4, 2025.

by Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic
December 11, 2025 | reading time: 7 Min.

“When I get to heaven I mean to spend a considerable portion of my first million years in painting,” wrote Winston Churchill in 1922. We have no idea how that project is going for the late British statesman, but we do know what he meant: Artistic creativity is a divine pursuit, and one of the great secrets to happiness.

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