“Writing is indeed, some kind of affliction in its demands as the most solitary and introspective of occupations.”

— Nadine Gordimer

Speech at the Nobel Banquet (1991)
Context: I certainly find being the recipient at this celebratory dinner more pleasurable and rewarding than chicken-pox, having now in my life experienced both. But the small girl was not entirely wrong. Writing is indeed, some kind of affliction in its demands as the most solitary and introspective of occupations.

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Nadine Gordimer 57

South african Nobel-winning writer 1923–2014

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