“What does it all mean? Is the writing life all about luck, or about talent, or about plain accident? Should a writer hope for posthumous comfort? When I told one of my daughters that I was tired of “begging and being bludgeoned,” she said, “Those are violent words, aren’t they?” But when a writer has given away great chunks of her life, and all her understanding of it, and all her knowledge of it, when she has risked losing friendships and the love of family members, when she has typed ten million words (but never had a job as a typist, never had a real income, never will have a pension), when her books are published but often not reviewed and even less read, and when she finds that bitterness is overtaking hopefulness, isn’t it time to stop? I think I’ve written all I want to say. I did want to write this.”
— Merrill Joan Gerber on Why I Must Give Up Writing
(the sad life of publishing and the market and all things that suck the joy out of writing)
