mediocre, adj. 1. ordinary, average, middling, moderate, medium, mean; commonplace, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety, everyday.
2. indifferent, so-so, fair, fair to middling, betwixt and between, Inf. nothing to write home or brag about; undistinguished, unexceptional, modest, of sorts, of a sort; neutral, bland, Sl. ho-hum, Sl. blah.
3. adequate, passable, acceptable, tolerable, respectable, presentable, admissible, fairly good, Inf. not that good, not bad, not too bad; poor, inferior, second-rate, bush-league, minor league, amateurish; unimportant, insignificant, slight, trifling, inconsiderable, inappreciable, negligible, limited, lesser, paltry, meager, scant.
““What I want is to be willing to fail rather than stagnate.””
““I don’t know why I started writing. I don’t know why anybody does it. Maybe they’re bored, or failures at something else.””
““I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any. Exercise is loathsome.””
““I’m a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can’t, and then tries the short story, which is the most demanding form after poetry. And, failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing.””
““Always leave them wanting less.””
““What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the mornin’ and gets to bed at night and in between he does what he wants to. What I want to do is make music.””