“But, of course, it's not the excuses we have to worry about. It's the responsibilities we bear, the economy we live in, the society that increasingly devalues art and pushes writers beyond its fringes. These very real concerns take up hours in our days and real estate in our psyches. And to dismiss the challenges we face would be to cut ourselves off from each other and from the generations of struggling artists who precede us and will follow us.”