Why write? Why not?

I was intrigued by these two quotes about why writers face sit down with pen in hand, or at a typewriter or computer, and begin the creative process.  It’s an immensely challenging – and yet at the same time immensely rewarding – process.

If you’re seeking inspiration, perhaps you’ll find it in the quotes by these accomplished writers.   They spoke the words two generations apart – John Steinbeck in the late 1930s; Anna Quindlen in the late 1990s – and yet they seem to be expressing like responses to the question “Why do writers write?”  Their answers:

“We write, simply to tell the truth about things as we see them.”—John Steinbeck

“Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbird or A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel.  Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had.”—Anna Quindlen

And so –  as Sonny & Cher once so famously sang – the beat goes on.   Happy writing.

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