I don’t know which it is writers welcome the most: praise or interruptions. Writers, to a man, to a woman, welcome any reason, any excuse, not to write. I have, on occasion, facing a deadline, found it necessary to shave four times on the same day. I will answer a letter that has been sitting on my desk for as long as five minutes. (It’s usually from someone who wants to know how to get started as a writer. I can tell them how to start a career. It’s the mornings that are a problem.) After I get that out of the way, I’ll settle down—and take a call from a salesman who wants to sell me some toner for my copy machine. There comes that moment, though, when I’ve simply run out of creative ways not to be creative, and I’ll finally start to write. But not before I take the time to sharpen my pencils to the point where they’re able to perform brain surgery.

LARRY GELBART