Knowing that everything comes to an end is a gift of experience, a consolation gift for knowing that we ourselves are coming to an end. Before we get it we live in a continuous present, and imagine the future as more of that present. Happiness is endless happiness, innocent of its own sure passing. Pain is endless pain.
Tobias WolffBut a lot of writers - and I'm one of them - do tend to feel dissatisfied. It makes you a little hard to live with, but it's a goad and does keep you alert and restless.
Tobias WolffMost of us dont live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented.
Tobias WolffTo be a writer you need to see things as they are, and to see things as they are you need a certain basic innocence.
Tobias Wolff