Only two things happen to writers when they die: Either their work survives, or it becomes forgotten.

But now the joy is gone and the sadness is back, the sadness feels like something deserved, the price of some not-quite-forgotten betrayal.

We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it's all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can't change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

...stopping a piece of work just because it's hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when if feels like all you're managing is to shovel sh*t from a sitting position.

In polite society, we call our obsessions hobbies.

FEAR stands for face everything and recover – Old AA saying

there's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst.