“If you can’t stand your own company alone in a room for long hours, or, when it gets tough, the feeling of being in a locked cell, or, when it gets tougher still, the vague feeling of being buried alive–then don’t be a writer. When you’re a young writer, still struggling to get into print, the sense of confinement can be particularly acute. You have simply yet to appear. You exist–it’s only your choice–in a sort of box, under a lid. You can sometimes wonder if the lid hasn’t become sealed or turned to stone.” – Graham Swift, from Making an Elephant: Writing from Within
