Malcolm Gladwell on writing

"it's like umm... playing a piano.  In a sense that if you want to be a writer, you have to write and you have to write everyday... and if you don't write everyday, then your technique suffers.  And uh... and also you have to be willing to do twenty drafts.

Whenever I talk to young writers starting out and they are curious about the process, I always ask them, 'well, how many drafts do you normally do?'  They always radically underestimate it.  They do two drafts and they get discouraged they say, 'well, I've written something that's terrible.'

Well, everything I write after two drafts is terrible too.  I mean, everyone's stuff is terrible unless you're some kind of... Picasso.  It took me a long time to learn that but it's the most valuable lesson I've learned.

Even when you're experienced, it doesn't come easy, and it shouldn't come in easy.  If it comes in easy then you're not doing it right."