"You always hear writers complain about the hellish difficulty of writing, but it’s a dishonest complaint...."

"The only difficulty is its necessity for solitude. Writing is not compatible with anything — its utter self-absorption is generally destructive to family life and friendships — and yet I find it joyous. All creativity is uplifting; I finish a book in a mood approaching rapture.... Growing up, needing privacy in a large family — I was the third of seven children — I became a fugitive, finding solace in libraries and in long hikes and in solitude, as well as in many menial jobs — anything to escape the conflicting demands and the scrutiny of my family. From childhood, I had always written stories in a secret way, offloading my thoughts on paper.... When someone confides to me that they think they might have an ambition to write, I suggest they leave home — go away, get a job. Never enter a 'writing program.'... Writing is neither dreary nor a job. I see it as a process of life...."

Says Paul Theroux, in "Paul Theroux on Necessary Solitude, Risks and the Joy of Writing/After 60 years and almost as many books, the novelist and travel writer, 83, will stop when he falls out of his chair" (NYT).