Paying Homage to One of the Greats

Today, we'll be starting with a quote from an absolute literary legend. His name is.... wait for it... Robert A. Heinlein. 

Yup, that's him. He's written such classics as Stranger in a Strange Land and The Day After Tomorrow. He's absolutely beautiful... well, alright, so his work is absolutely beautiful. 

Anyway, the quote comes from a speech given by Dr. Richard Ames in his book, The Cat who Walked Through Walls.  It goes a little something like this: 

      "I have a nasty habit. Makes me hard to live with. I write. I'm not going to apologize for writing anymore than I would apologize for this missing foot, and in truth one led to the other. When I could no longer follow the profession of arms, I had to do something to eat. I wasn't trained for anything else and back home some other kid had my paper route. But writing is a legal way of avoiding work without actually stealing and one that doesn't take any talent or training.

      "But writing is antisocial. Disturb a writer when he is in the throes of creation and he is likely to turn and bite right to the bone... and not even know he's doing it. As writers' wives and husbands often learn to their horror. 

      "And... there is no way that writers can be tamed or rendered civilized. Or even cured. In a household with more than one person, of which one is a writer, the only solution known to science is to provide the patient with an isolation room, where he can endure the acute stages in private, and where food can be poked in to him with a stick. Because, if you disturb the patient at such times, he may break into tears or become violent. Or he may not hear you at all... and, if you shake him at this stage, he bites...

      "I did not explain to you the other aspect of writing. There is no way to stop. Writers go on writing long after it becomes financially necessary, because it hurts less to write than it does not to write... I took that first fatal step- a short story, it was, and I honestly thought I could quit anytime. Never mind, Dear. In another ten years you will understand. Just pay no attention to me when I whimper. Doesn't mean anything, just the monkey on my back." 

I'll stop there, since it's long enough, but he goes on to talk about a man he knew, a writer, who tried to see a psychoanalyst and the last he saw of him, he was basically locked up in a psych ward. Something along those lines. 

You're probably wondering what my point is. I don't have one, really. I think I just wanted to share that gem of a quote with you all. I hope you appreciate it. I picked up a copy of The Cat who Walks Through Walls. I absolutely recommend it to anyone with a hunger for sci-fi and dry humor.