To Be Productive, Be Confident

I used to wonder, enviously, how he could write so much, especially given his drinking, his travels, his public appearances and his demanding social life. He told me once that a writer should be able to write with no difficulty, anytime, anywhere—but actually, not many writers can do that. I think part of the reason why he was so prolific—and the reason he had such an outsize career and such an outsize effect on his readers—is that he was possibly the least troubled with self-doubt of all the writers on earth.

Katha Pollitt, "Regarding Christopher"

The Risk of Trying Hard

[I]f you work hard and fail, there's the presumption that you're innately not very talented. If you don't work hard and fail, you can credibly preserve the belief or illusion that had you only put forth 100% effort, it would have worked out.

Ben Casnocha, "The Risk of Working Hard"

A Reeducation

Enduring a flue alone in an apartment has always included a certain psychedelic aspect, it seems to me. But it is a psychedelia of the body, not the mind. A sustained, sapping fever is a reeducation in the true weight of a blunt human collection of arms and legs, of a lollipop head wobbling on a wooz neck, and in the sensation of a throw pillow's scrape against ribs as sensitive as a lover's lips.

Jonathan Lethem, Chronic City, p. 231 (Ch. 12)