A lot of the talk about Bowie swirls down to how he played himself, and it’s true that he gave us a whole pop sense of persona. It’s also true and more important to me that he worked harder and longer than he played. He took his work more seriously than he took himself, which is the first and number one lesson of adult life. He knew when to go out and when to stay in, which is the second. When he was older, like when he was younger, he made some bad art and decisions. Sometimes he was a joke, but he was always the first to tell it (in interviews, commercials, and guest appearances, he was very, very funny in the is-it-or-isn’t-it way I like). No one could repeat him, duh. No one so glittering and dilettantish was also a public intellectual, and no one made trying (the new selling out) look hotter. No one reminds me more that trying again is the really heroic move.

– Sarah Nicole Prickett on David Bowie