Art & Creativity Quote by James Fallows

Fallows nails a grown-up truth about power: the most satisfying response is usually the one you don’t deliver. The line is built like advice you’d find in a self-help book, then sharpened into newsroom realism by that final commandment - “Never mail them.” The whiplash is the point. He grants the primal urge to retaliate, but refuses to romanticize it. You can have the heat, but you don’t get to turn it into collateral damage.

The intent is practical, not pious. “Write angry letters” is permission to externalize rage without pretending you’re above it. On the page, anger becomes data: what exactly hurt, what stakes you think are being threatened, what story you’re telling yourself about the other person. That process clarifies whether your grievance is righteous, petty, or just exhausted. “Never mail them” is where professionalism enters: once anger becomes correspondence, it becomes evidence, ammunition, and reputation. It recruits bystanders. It can outlive the moment that produced it.

As a journalist, Fallows also smuggles in a media lesson. Public communication is sticky; it travels, gets forwarded, gets quoted back at you years later. The subtext is that outrage feels like agency, but often functions like self-sabotage. The unsent letter is a pressure valve and a rehearsal, not a weapon.

There’s cynicism here, but it’s a useful kind: an acknowledgment that enemies are rarely defeated by your eloquence, and frequently strengthened by your loss of control. The smartest revenge is keeping your judgment intact.