Dear Geist,


, writers describe the difficulty and even despair of writing, and you acknowledge it and cheer them on, which is good. The same goes for other artists—visual artists, photographers, musicians, sculptors and the rest. A friend of mine says all specialized work is like art, because only a person with the same experience can understand. I don't agree. For one thing the great majority of artists can't expect to make a decent living from their work. For another thing artists don't tend to have conventional “goals.” Usually we can't even describe what we're doing and we don't want to. So here's another quote for you, from Shirley Hazzard (1931–2016): “The state you need to write in is the state others are paying large sums to get rid of.”


Dear Tuuli,


Thanks so much for the note and quote. We couldn't have said it better. Keep going!