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Do symptoms, dreams, or parapraxis tell us anything about failure? The analysis of creative processes and of some prominent works by such artists as David Foster Wallace (“The Nature of Fun,” 1998), Dieter Roth ( Mundunculum, 1967), and Samuel Beckett ( Les Trois dialogues, 1949, about the van Velde brothers) reveals the various forms of failures that found their universalism. Wallace mentions his sense of failure and the disappointment he experiences when confronted with the discrepancy between his ideal and the gaze of the reader: his writing begets a deformed child. Within this same discrepancy, for Dieter Roth, libidinal organs as artistic motifs become depressive investment. Beckett describes Bram van Velde’s antinomic position: he has nothing to say, but nevertheless feels he must paint, while insisting on denying any signification in his paintings. These different vocations to failure lead us back to the sinthome and to Beckett’s expression that Lacan held dear: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”