Sublime

And inspiration works with us, it seems, because inspiration likes working us—because human beings are possessed of something special, something extra, something unnecessarily rich, something that the novelist Marilynne Robinson calls “an overabundance that is magical.” That magical overabundance?

Once my book entered her hands, after all, everything about it belonged to her, and never again to me.

“My creative expression must be the most important thing in the world to me (if I am to live artistically), and it also must not matter at all (if I am to live sanely).”

While I am not at all confrontational, I am deeply stubborn. This stubbornness helps when it comes to the business of creative living.

Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?

I worked for years with stubborn gladness before I was published. I worked with stubborn gladness when I was still an unknown new writer, whose first book sold just a handful of copies—mostly to members of my own family.

Whether you think you’re brilliant or you think you’re a loser, just make whatever you need to make and toss it out there.