“I can consider many things that fill me up with writing—my sense of place and personal history, the uncountable wonderful books that have come before me, the love of language and all its sounds—but in the end I simply come to the act itself, to working. I am in love with the work. I work mostly in a small, skylit studio, messy with paper and books. I work on the keyboard and in notebooks, large and tiny. I work in the long hours of the night, when I am alone and it’s quiet, drinking immoderate amounts of coffee and guarded from the shadows by a loyal and somewhat feral cat. I never have to worry about subject or inspiration because I love the labor for itself. It is meditative and redemptive and brings forth what is best in me, and it is its own inimitable, unparalleled reward.”
—Frank X. Gaspar, author of Stealing Fatima (Counterpoint, 2009)