I like the fact that in ancient Chinese art the great painters always included a deliberate flaw in their work: human creation is never perfect.

L’Engle uses an anecdote about “deliberate flaws” in traditional Chinese painting to argue for humility about art, craft, and human striving. The point is not to celebrate sloppiness, but to acknowledge finitude: human makers are limited, and any honest work bears traces of that limitation. The “flaw” becomes a safeguard against idolatry—against treating a created thing (a painting, a book, a self-image) as absolute or divine. Read this way, the quote aligns with L’Engle’s recurring themes: the dignity of making, the necessity of imperfection, and the spiritual danger of confusing human achievement with ultimate perfection.