You have a great deal of yourself on the line, writing– your vanity is at stake. You discover a tricky thing about fiction writing; a certain amount of vanity is necessary to be able to do it all, but any vanity above that certain amount is lethal.

David Foster Wallace
About This Quote

Vanity is not something to be taken lightly. Writers are particularly vulnerable to vanity, which can undermine the creative process. We may put off writing because of vanity, or we may write too much of what we know will please us. Vanity even has the power to sabotage our writing career.

If you are a writer, you should never put off writing because of vanity. If you do, you will likely end up with a book that is not very good or that is only good on one level.

Source: Both Flesh And Not: Essays

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