A kind of living...

"A thing that fascinated me was the way a talent might peak, then just disappear. I had heard writers say that it came upon them like a loss of nerve: they feel they're done for and that there's no point in it any more; they are out of step with the world and there is nothing to relight their creative fire. The owner (or custodian) of the talent is the first to know when it falters. Nowhere must that be truer than in a game like football where talent is directly linked to a physical fitness which can be held at a peak for only a few years. Thank God writing wasn't dependent in that way. A writer's talent ought to ripen, mature for as long as he/she is capable of getting the words down, or possesses the mind to sort them out for someone else to transcribe. Especially interesting that I should be called upon to formulate and examine all this when I was full of doubt about myself.

"No two writers can live together free from tension - one has learned to ride one's own disappointments; it is not easy to add someone else's to that precarious balance - but we know how to laugh."

Stan Barstow - In My Own Good Time