F. Scott Fitzgerald on the Secret of Great Writing

When Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s daughter entered into high school, he wrote her a short letter. In this letter, he cautioned against following in his own footsteps in becoming a writer, while simultaneously encouraging her to pursue her dreams and not to get discouraged when her work fell short of her expectations.

“Nobody ever became a writer just by wanting to be one. If you have anything to say, anything you feel nobody has ever said before, you have got to feel it so desperately that you will find some way to say it that nobody has ever found before, so that the thing you have to say and the way of saying it blend as one matter — as indissolubly as if they were conceived together.”

An interesting point of view to keep in mind.