James Baldwin on Success as a Writer

“Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.”

James Baldwin at his Olympia SM7 manual typewriter

From a 1989 anthology called The Writer’s Chapbook: A Compendium of Fact, Opinion, Wit, and Advice from the 20th Century’s Preeminent Writers, edited by Paris Review founding editor George Plimpton. This is taken from an interview with James Baldwin.