Junot Diaz on the Fatal Risk of Forcing It

“You know, I force it. And by forcing it, I lose everything that’s interesting about my work. What’s interesting about my work, for me – not for anyone else; God knows I can’t speak for that – what’s interesting in my work is the way that when I’m playing full out, when I am just feeling relaxed and I’m playing, and all my faculties are firing, but only just to play. Not to get a date, not because I want someone to hug me, not because I want
anyone to read it. Just to play.”