I Think I Would Like To Be

The Most Important Thing About The First Sale Is For The Very First Time In Your Life Something Written Has Value And Proven Value Because Somebody Has Given You Money For The Words That You've Written, And That's Terribly Important, It's A Tremendous Boon To The Ego, To Your Sense Of Self-reliance, To Your Feeling About Your Own Talent.

I Suppose We Think Euphemistically That All Writers Write Because They Have Something To Say That Is Truthful And Honest And Pointed And Important. And I Suppose I Subscribe To That, Too. But God Knows When I Look Back Over Thirty Years Of Professional Writing, I'm Hard-pressed To Come Up With Anything That's Important. Some Things Are Literate, Some Things Are Interesting, Some Things Are Classy, But Very Damn Little Is Important.

Emmies, For Example, Most Of That's Bullshit. Oscars Are Even Worse. We Have A Strange, Terrible Affliction In This Town. Everybody Walks Around Bent-backed From Slapping Each Other On The Backs So Much. It Looks Like Arthritis But It Isn't. It's Hunger For Recognition. And It's Sort Of Like, Well, I'll Scratch You This Time If You'll Scratch Me Next Time. That Kind Of Thing.

Up There, Up There In The Vastness Of Space, In The Void That Is Sky, Up There Is An Enemy Known As Isolation. It Sits There In The Stars Waiting, Waiting With The Patience Of Eons, Forever Waiting In The Twilight Zone.

I Write Much Better In The Nonconfines Of The Early Morning Than I Do The Clutter Of The Day.