Writers on Writing

       Philip Roth was approached by a budding writer who pressed his first novel on him.  Upon returning the manuscript, Roth said, "Yeah, this is great.  But I would quit while you're ahead."  Roth then spoke of the awful and torturous field of writing.  "I would say just stop now.  You don't want to do this to yourself."

       The account appeared in today's David L. Ulin column on "The Reading Life" in the L.A. Times.  By column's end some positive notes are struck by both Ulin and the young novelist himself on the bleak field of writing.

       Nevertheless, it's hard to resist the truthful ring of what Ulin also includes from sportswriter Red Smith:  "There's nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."