A notepad for writing (non-fiction)

They say that “every writer is cursed or blessed with a unique creative metabolism: the distinctive speed and efficiency with which he or she converts the raw fuel of life into the mystical, dancing blue smoke of art.”

They also say that the Dominican Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Díaz’s metabolism is “notoriously slow.” 

His response, via The New York Times Magazine:

I read a book a week, man. And I don’t have a great memory, but I have a good memory about what I read.

I’m old enough and experienced enough to know when I’m reading to avoid. And then you gotta get back to work. And I also know — you get old enough, you know when you’re forcing the writing, so you need to go hit the books.

Bonus: An outstanding interview with The Rumpus, published yesterday. 

Image: Junot Díaz’s notebook for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, via The Penguin Press.