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Thanks for the thoughts Jim. His writing is brutal and beautiful. I love it. The late Wade Goodman had a very nice piece on him that NPR played in full (I believe) this afternoon.

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I had occasion to hear Wade's piece, which I thought was classic Wade reportage.

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I just googled it. Apparently, lots of writers have said various versions of blood on the forehead!!!! Nobody knows for sure.

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Yeah, the one I recall is, "Writing is easy. You just sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."

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Thanks for this one! I love McCarthy’s advice. Prior to his words, my favorite writing quote was: “Writing is easy, you just stare at the paper until your forehead begins to bleed.” I wish I could remember who said it. I read it about 25 years ago in a newspaper article.

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