Indeed, it is a cruel truth of the history of all art and literature that most would-be poets, writers, and painters fail. The man or woman of real talent is rare, the born genius rarer still. For every book that survives the merciless judgment of time, there are nine hundred and ninety-nine rotting unread in libraries and nine thousand and ninety-nine that were never written in the first place.

Michael Harrington (1928-1989) American writer, political activist, political scientist [Edward Michael Harrington, Jr.]

Fragments of the Century, ch. 2 “The Death of Bohemia” (1973)
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