Why do writers write? I try to unveil the mystery concerning this question by focusing on a more challenging question…

This website that bears my name is going to complete its third year soon. After having been deprived of the possibility of writing in newspapers; instead of enjoying a quiet and pleasant life of retirement at home away from hustle and bustle of the day, I embarked on an adventure that involves more time devoted to publishing effort than before.  

In the past, I would write commentaries on most days of the week and took time-off some days. Now, except one-week period due to a surgical operation I underwent, I have been writing religiously a piece every single day on my website.

Why?

I have found the answer to this question in a newly-published book, titled “The Scandal of the Century and Other Writings”, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014), the Nobel laureate in literature in 1982, famous as “Gabo” throughout Latin America. The book is a collection of pieces he wrote during his journalistic career.

The answer I sought lies in the lines below:

“[..] it seems elementary to wonder why we writers write. The answer, necessarily, is more melodramatic the more sincere it is. You’re a writer in the very same way you might be Jewish or black. Success is encouraging, support of readers is stimulating, but these are supplementary rewards, because a good writer will carry on writing anyway with worn-out shoes, and even if his books don’t sell. It is a kind of occupational hazard that explains very well the social madness that so many men and women have starved themselves to death, in order to do something that, after all, and speaking completely seriously, serves no purpose whatsoever.”