Writing is the hardest thing I know, but it was the only thing I wanted to do. I wrote for 20 years and published nothing before my first book.
Interpretation
Writing requires perseverance, even in the face of difficulty and initial failure.
Kent Haruf’s quote reflects the challenges of the writing process and the commitment required to pursue one’s passion despite obstacles and setbacks. He emphasizes that the struggle to produce meaningful work can be daunting, but the desire to create is a powerful motivator that drives individuals to persist for years, even without immediate success.
In practice
In a writing workshop, to encourage participants to push through writer's block.
If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by ingeniously planning out a timetable with a pen on a piece of paper, you had better give up hope at once.If you are not prepared for discouragements and disillusions;_x000D_ if you will not be content with a small result for a big effort, then do not begin. Lie down again and resume the uneasy doze which you call your existence.
There is no way around the hard work. Embrace it.
One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.
Every day in camp is a difficult day because you worry whether or not you're going to get it right. You worry - or I do, at least - whether or not you're going to live up to the trust as the trainer that the fighter gave you when he asked you to train him.
Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back... play for her.
Every day you miss playing or practicing is one day longer it takes to be good.
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