Playing the Inside Out is David Adams Richard's distilled insight on the artist's struggle for full access to artistic integrity by remaining an outsider to convention. Richards conjures forth his vision of eternal truths commonly held by all mankind, a Miramichi cosmic consciousness that he has been working at all his life. In an entertaining, remonstrating, and ultimately uplifting essay he identifies how conformity and laziness poison artists, and the great pressures that exist for writers to "join the herd. "No one can possibly read this essay and not find comments or conclusions that directly relate to them. The writer's challenge to find and protect one's inner honesty is deeply familiar to anyone seeking to be faithful to the true sense of "I" that dominates motivation and judgement. So personal are the truths that Richards lays out, that an inmate, politician, nurse, teenager, farmer, teacher -- anyone who reads -- all will feel Richards' passion and find value in his practical wisdom and encouragement. This book offers a shrewd analysis; a personal advisory directed at artists and writers in particular. But Richards' topic and manner of address are egalitarian. He is telling us to be who we are -- honestly, consistently, and with heart.