I Can't Write The Book I Want

To Say It Was A Beautiful Day Would Not Begin To Explain It. It Was That Day When The End Of Summer Intersects Perfectly With The Start Of Fall .... [p.218 Ff.]

Do You Want To Do This Thing? Sit Down And Do It. Are You Not Writing? Keep Sitting There. Does It Not Feel Right? Keep Sitting There. Think Of Yourself As A Monk Walking The Path To Enlightenment. Think Of Yourself As A High School Senior Wanting To Be A Neurosurgeon. Is It Possible? Yes. Is There Some Shortcut? Not One I've Found. Writing Is A Miserable, Awful Business. Stay With It. It Is Better Than Anything In The World.

Why Is It That We Understand Playing The Cello Will Require Work, But We Attribute Writing To The Magic Of Inspiration?

That Was The Way Things Worked. When You Were Looking For The Big Fight, The Moment That You Thought Would Knock Everything Over, Nothing Much Happened At All.

Society Was Nothing But A Long, Dull Dinner Party Conversation In Which One Was Forced To Speak To One's Partner On Both The Left And The Right.