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Medicine is a supremely useful profession. Fiction writing is not.

Writing is a way of processing our lives. And it can be a way of healing.

I no longer practice medicine, but I can say that, for me, medicine was easier - and certainly less emotionally turbulent - than writing.

My father said writing was a nice hobby. He strongly encouraged my brother and me to become doctors.

Medicine ended up being the best thing I ever did for my writing.

Medicine involves dealing with people who are going through changes and cycles, often people trapped in bodies that are going out from under them. Spending time with them lets you think their way, gives you insights as a writer.

Writing is a lonely profession.

In medicine, there's a fairly large but still finite body of knowledge that you need at hand for most of your daily work. It takes a few years to learn it, but once it's there, it's there. With writing, on the other hand, every new book - indeed, every new story - is a fresh and terrifying reinvention of everything.

Writing is the supreme solace.