Bird by Bird is one of Popova’s all time favorite books on writing.

Anne Lamott on Writing and Why Perfectionism Kills Creativity

Most of all, however, Lamott sees in writing not a selfish act of personal gratification but an act of warm generosity — which is, after all, what drives all of us who wake up in the morning to put something we love into the world and go to bed at night glad that we did:

If you give freely, there will always be more. … It is one of the greatest feelings known to humans, the feeling of being the host, of hosting people, of being the person to whom they come for food and drink and company. This is what the writer has to offer.

This is a wonderful idea, and one that I can easily buy in to since I love to host.