Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there's a big difference between 'being a writer' and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at the typewriter. 'You've got to want to write,' I say to them, 'not want to be a writer.' The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune, there are thousands more whose longing is never requited. Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did.