FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN…I CAN’T HELP IT*
In the November issue of “Vanity Fair” Robert Loomis, a recently retired book editor with Random House, tells a story about the author Jackie Collins. When asked why she became a writer she retorted the reason was because her husband gave her a typewriter for her birthday. “If he’d given me a violin,” she explained, “I’d be performing at Carnegie Hall.” (“Vanity Fair” 11/2011)
Loomis’ point is that a writer needs self-confidence to survive a career. Certainly he will be subjected to all the abuse and insults the psyche is heir. Anyone who follows this blog may remember more than one example of a best-selling author insulted by an agent or a publisher at least once during his career.
Where Dietrich sang “Falling in Love Again”
Unfortunately, few writers will become best sellers. A very few will make a living from their work. It doesn’t matter. People write because the desire to communicate is part of the human DNA and when that need is coupled with a love of language, then the consequence is inevitable. When asked if a writer ever retires, Loomis answered:
“No, they cannot… A writer has no way of saying, ‘OK, I’ve done it.’ It isn’t a profession that writers feel they can withdraw from honorably. They just can’t.”
Of course, writers aren’t unique. Anyone driven by a passion feels the same. To love intensely, even when it hurts, is the paradox and gift of a meaningful life.
* Music & English Lyrics by Friedrich Hollaender and Sammy Lerner