The Importance of Role Models

Kurt Vonnegut wrote at length in many books and essays about his writing process. He would sit at his Smith-Corona typewriter, smoking Pall Malls like a chimney. It was easy for me to imagine myself just like him. It was so easy that every time I sit at my typewriter I yearn for a cigarette.

I've never smoked a cigarette in my life.

It's a powerful thing, reading about people who seem like you, doing the thing you want to do.

Sometimes, I'll be writing in my coffee shop at my computer, feeling t...