Yancey on Writing

Philip Yancey has some interesting things to say about the art of writing in his new book Grace Notes:

"Of all the arts, writing is the meekest. Painters use color and sculptors work with three dimensions, both media so much more arresting than the writer's thin marks of abstraction. Other art forms--movies, painting, dance, music--we encounter directly, sensually; only writing requires an intermediate step, literacy, for a person to perceive it. Show a copy of King Lear to an Amazon Indian tribe and they'll see something resembling pepper sprinkled on a page.

"Surveys reveal that writers rank very high on the list of addiction-prone professionals. They chain-smoke, mainline caffeine, and turn to alcohol at an alarming rate. Why? Every day a writer must cope with a deep-seated paranoia: I have nothing to say, I've said it all before, I'm a fake and a hypocrite, I write in cliches. In addition, writing is such a disembodied act that we unconsciously seek to involve other body parts, even if it means moving a cup, glass, or wrapped tobacco tube from table to mouth and back."