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About this quote

What does it mean?
The writer feels trapped by audience expectations to keep producing the same successful work, seeing it as both a gift and a burden.
In plain terms
Being known for one thing makes it hard to do anything else.
What can you take from it?
Recognize how success can limit creative freedom.

Where it applies

  • career planning
  • dealing with typecasting
  • creative blocks

Putting it to work

  • planning a next project
  • managing fan expectations

Questions to consider

  • Do you feel stuck by past success?
  • How do audiences define artists?

Another view

It implies stagnation is the only risk of popularity.

More from P. L. Travers

  1. We'll never forget you, Mary Poppins!

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  2. There are worlds beyond worlds and times beyond times, all of them true, all of them real, and all of them (as children know) penetrating each other.

    Permalink to quote #22
  3. Mary Poppins herself had flown away, but the gifts she had brought would remain for always.

    Permalink to quote #19

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