Writing a book is hard. It turns out, writing a second book is twice as hard.
And, I mean, I think poetry does need to be met to some extent, especially, I guess, 19th century poetry, and for me, it's just been so worth the effort. It's like I'm planting a garden in my head.
People think writing a children's book is something you could do in an afternoon but it's actually really hard.
Holy cow - everything about writing a novel is hard for me.
Life is nearly over with me. I have taken no pains about my style of writing.
After I'd been in college for a couple years I'd read Shakespeare and Frost and Chaucer and the poets of the Harlem Renaissance. I'd come to appreciate how gorgeous the English language could be. But most fantasy novels didn't seem to make the effort.
Why should literature be easy? Sometimes you can do what you want to do in a simple, direct way that is absolutely right. Sometimes you can't. Reading is not a passive act. Books are not TV. Art of all kinds is an interactive challenge. The person who makes the work and the person who comes to the work both have a job to do. I am never wilfully obscure, but I do ask for some effort.
Easy writing's curst hard reading.
Writing is hard.
I write, fighting for every sentence, fighting to hold the reader with every paragraph.
