The Joys of Writing 写作的乐趣 The fortunate people in the world-the only really fortunate people in the world,in my mind, are those whose work is also their pleasure. 在我看来，世上幸运的人—世上唯一真正幸运的人，是那些以工作为乐的人。 Th
And the question that I want to ask everybody here today is are you guys all cool with that idea? 我今天想问在座各位的是：你们大家都对此毫无异议吗？ Are you comfortable with that? Because you look at it even from an inch away
And when this happened, back then, people knew it for what it was, you know, they called it by its name. 当时的人们，清楚地知道这是什么，他们能叫出它的名字。 They would put their hands together and they would start to chant, "
I am a writer. Writing books is my profession but it's more than that, of course. 我是个作家，写作不仅仅是我的职业， It is also my great lifelong love and fascination. And I don't expect that that's ever going to chan
And I got to tell you, I think that was a huge error. 而我要说的是，我认为那是一个巨大的错误。 You know, I think that allowing somebody, one mere person to believe that he or she is like, the vessel, you know, 让一个人，区区一个个
And that search has led me to ancient Greece and ancient Rome. 这一寻找最后把我带到了古希腊和古罗马。 So stay with me, because it does circle around and back. 所以请耐心听我讲，因为最后会绕回到我们的问题。 But, ancient Greece and ancient Rome
And for me, the best contemporary example that I have of how to do that is the musician Tom Waits, 就我所知的当代艺术家中，将这一问题处理得最好的是音乐家汤姆·威兹。 who I got to interview several years ago on a magazine assignment.
When I heard that story, it started to shift a little bit the way that I worked too, and this idea already saved me once. 这个故事潜移默化地改变了我的工作方式，这一转变已经拯救了我一次，这个故事潜移默化地改变了我的工作方式，这一转变已经拯救了我一次。 It saved me w
I had this encounter recently where I met the extraordinary American poet Ruth Stone, 比方说，我最近见到杰出的美国诗人露丝.斯通， who's now in her 90s, but she's been a poet her entire life and she told me that when she w
Like that, you know. The answer -- the short answer to all those questions is, "Yes." Yes, I'm afraid of all those things. 我当时一直得到诸如此类的质疑。对于这些质疑，最简单的回答是：“怕” 是的，这种种一切都让人害怕。 And I always have been. And
