Perversity of Spirit
Talent is the least important thing about a writer, compared to a love of books, which must be deep and abiding.
The only thing a writer really needs is perversity of spirit, the emotional equivalent of a cartoon character’s bouncy springiness, so that after being run over or blown up—or, in the case of the writer, rejected, then rejected some more—the writer is irrationally unfazed by even the most valid criticism and continues with the work of being a writer, magically unharmed.
~Rufi Thorpe on what it takes to be a writer (Poets & Writers, Sept/Oct 2014)
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