23rd June 2016 | for Creatives | creating isn't easy, writing, Terrance Hayes, sport, the creative life |
"I've learned that writing never gets easy. When the work is hard (emotionally, intellectually, creatively) you have to work hard (emotionally, intellectually, creatively). Maybe it's akin to sports: players work forward. Even a game win yesterday does not mean you don't have practice today and another game tomorrow. It never gets easy."
"The first use for propinquity is removing all the little barriers that will keep you from writing. The more of these exist, the less likely you are to write. Many of them are simple, and some so tiny you may doubt that they'll keep you from writing. But they will."
"The author T.S. Eliot was also a banker. Another writer, Kurt Vonnegut, sold cars. One of the greatest composers of our time, Philip Glass, didn’t earn a living from his calling making music until he was forty-two. Even as his work was premiering at the Met, he worked as a plumber and renewed his taxi license, just in case."
"You have to give yourself permission, say to yourself, 'I'm not foolish for wanting this.' All writers have to fight the same fight. I have to write 2,000 words today, no matter what. That's my discipline, and that's me protecting the work."
"What I consider to be the 'real' life of a modern-day novelist: There will be high points, there will be harsh blows, and you will probably have to teach, consult, or edit to make ends meet. All you can do is return to the writing, day after day—and never, ever give up."
"There is so much more to 'being a writer' than putting words to paper. The process that a writer endures is wholly intensive, an all-consuming effort that can define one's day, week, month, year."
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