“Writing is, therefore, both a form of compulsive behavior and, I frequently tell people, a self-induced form of mental illness. Those few writers who don’t start off by being a little nuts soon get that way as a direct result of their vocation.”
—
Larry Niven
,
book
N-Space
Tom Clancy, Introduction: The Maker of Worlds (p. 1)
Short fiction, N-Space (1990)
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Larry Niven 138
American writer 1938Related quotes
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Context: Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there’s a big difference between “being a writer” and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at the typewriter. “You’ve got to want to write,” I say to them, “not want to be a writer.”
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