"One of my big revelations was that nobody cares whether you write your novel or not. They want you to be happy. Your parents want you to have health insurance. Your friends want you to be a good friend. But everyoneâ€™s thinking about their own problems and nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, â€˜Boy, I sure hope Sam finishes that chapter and gets one step closer to his dream of being a working writer.â€™ Nobody does that. If you want to write, it has to come from you. If you donâ€™t want to write, thatâ€™s great. Go do something else. That was a very liberating moment for me."

-- Sam Lipsyte

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