Inspiration is my responsibility. Inspiration is part of the job description. It doesn’t strike like lightning. I lay myself open to receive it. You can’t manhandle it or make demands of it, but you can put yourself in the path of it. You make yourself available to it. It’s my job as a writer to live in such a way that every time I sit down to write, I’m inspired, not in the moment necessarily, but in my life, as a way of life. What this means is that it’s my job, literally, to go to art galleries and read poetry and go for walks and spend time with interesting people. It’s part of my work to
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