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Writing books is my profession but it's more than that, of course.
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It is also my great lifelong love and fascination.
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And I don't expect that that's ever going to change.
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But, that said, something kind of peculiar has happened recently
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in my life and in my career,
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which has caused me to have to recalibrate my whole relationship with this work.
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And the peculiar thing is that I recently wrote this book,
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this memoir called "Eat, Pray, Love"
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which, decidedly unlike any of my previous books,
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went out in the world for some reason, and became this big,
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mega-sensation, international bestseller thing.
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The result of which is that everywhere I go now,
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people treat me like I'm doomed.
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Seriously -- doomed, doomed!
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Like they come up to me now all worried and they say,
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"Aren't you afraid -- aren't you afraid you're never going to be able to top that?
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Aren't you afraid you're going to keep writing for your whole life
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and you're never again going to create a book
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that anybody in the world cares about at all,
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So that's reassuring, you know.
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But it would be worse, except for that I happen to remember
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that over 20 years ago, when I first started telling people -- when I was a teenager --
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that I wanted to be a writer,
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I was met with this same kind of, sort of fear-based reaction.
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And people would say, "Aren't you afraid you're never going to have any success?
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Aren't you afraid the humiliation of rejection will kill you?
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Aren't you afraid that you're going to work your whole life at this craft
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and nothing's ever going to come of it
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and you're going to die on a scrap heap of broken dreams
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with your mouth filled with bitter ash of failure?"
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Like that, you know.
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The answer -- the short answer to all those questions is, "Yes."
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Yes, I'm afraid of all those things.
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And I always have been.
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And I'm afraid of many many more things besides
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that people can't even guess at.
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Like seaweed, and other things that are scary.
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But, when it comes to writing
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the thing that I've been sort of thinking about lately, and wondering about lately, is why?
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You know, is it rational?
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Is it logical that anybody should be expected
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to be afraid of the work that they feel they were put on this Earth to do.
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You know, and what is it specifically about creative ventures
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that seems to make us really nervous about each other's mental health
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in a way that other careers kind of don't do, you know?
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Like my dad, for example, was a chemical engineer
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and I don't recall once in his 40 years of chemical engineering
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