Differential Topology with Prof. John W. Milnor (1965) [video]

I came here to recommend that. And anyone interested in great mathematical writing should read the first few pages of Morse Theory. (The rest of the book is great too, but I especially love the clarity and directness of that opening section.)

"Topology from the differential viewpoint" is a marvel of a book, and the most accessible one of Milnor's.

If you are not quite ready for it, or need some inspiration first, I recommend "Intuitive Topology" by Prasolov (https://bookstore.ams.org/mawrld-4/). It is short, has no prerequisites, and communicates the flavor of some of these ideas. (It also covers some knot theory, which is a different subject)

As I'm sure you know, Spivak[0] (whose lecture notes the book is based on) was one of Milnor's advisees at Princeton. I was told by another Princeton PhD who was there shortly after Spivak (may have overlapped, I'm not quite sure) that whenever Spivak had a problem he thought was interesting he would discuss it with Milnor, who invariably had already thought about it and knew the answer. This experience dissuaded Spivak from an academic career because he felt he could never be as good a mathematician as Milnor. At least that's the story I was told.

[0]: Same Spivak who wrote the famous Calculus book and a series on differential geometry.

Can’t be helped. He’s a really sharp guy and you have to overcompensate.