Roberto Bolaño on Why Writers Stop Writing 

let's not forget all the people who should have stopped writing...

I will say your videos have definitely inspired me to pick up my pen more. I never went to college and barely graduated HS but I always loved reading and writing.

One of my favorite writters. Greetings from Chile, land of poets.

I got sidetracked by bodybuilding, music, and photography, but I realize now I should have been just writing.

Lol. I was typing a comment about Rulfo and Garcia Marquez and then you started talking about it. So I deleted the comment. But I wanted to feed the algorithm gods on your behalf anyway. Pedro Paramo was required reading at my MFA. It's one of those novels where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. One of the all time greatest first sentences, IMO.

I found your mentioning of pranayama and meditation very interesting. During my childhood to early 20s I was a big musician. I practiced all the time and my skill exceeded what I thought I'd ever be capable of. I even had a youtube channel I'd post on that was slowly growing. But in my mid 20's I dealt with loss and emotional trauma for the first time and experimented with meditation and psychadelics in an attempt to heal myself. I wound up getting sucked into it and was meditating and reading Indian philosophers for hours a day for about 3 years. I completely lost interest in music because I stopped feeling creative. Now I mainly use my free time to read and I journal a bit. I've never talked to anybody about that, but when you spoke about it I completely related. I had never really thought about it in that way.

I love your perspective on writing and culture.

Is that a pool table in your house?

I am getting addicted to Ian's videos...nah. Thank you for what you do. Your videos help a lot.

This came for me at the perfect time. I'm in

I can't speak for others, but for me it has a lot to do with the malaise created by the time we live in; the stupid, mediocre, over technologized time. And that's aside from all the other mundane things you mentioned that would discourage (if not stop) you from writing. Then you see the type of writing getting praised to no end today and it makes you want to throw up your hands and forget the whole enterprise.

I am addicted to coffee and I ain't ashamed to say it. I looooooooove my cup of Java.

ian, i just found your channel but damn brother - this is great content

Hey Ian, what are your thoughts on balancing writing and reading time?

the opportunity cost of spending your life sitting in a quiet room moving words around on a piece of paper is....living life.... you're literally choosing to write about life instead of living it... it's hard to overstate how difficult a decision it is to decide to spend your life writing.... for some people it makes sense.... for most it won't....

Great vid, thanks! Is there one about shitty first drafts? New subscriber here. I like what you said about the Cormac McCarthy draft. It gives me some hope. I have a hard time reading while I’m writing. I think it’s because I see these finished products and panic. Thanks again!

From what I can remember from reading his biography many years ago, I think Rimbaud stopped writing partly because it was bound up with his belief that he could somehow become a supernatural deity or "god". This was due to his dabbling in the occult from a young age. When he realised he had failed to achieve his goal he gave up writing. As such he did not write exclusively because he wanted to become a great artist but also because he wanted to become a god. He then became obsessed with trying to make money, using his talent for languages to learn African languages so he could engage in international trade. This too failed, if I remember rightly.

I really like what you said and admire the authors you cited/mentioned but youre so wrong about India (or subcontinent) not having canonical work... I'm not a flagbearer or a defender, just mentioning it. I know western novel tradition is amazing and books like Pedro Paramo, 2666 and Blood Meridian are one of my favorites.

Great video! I wish there would be a German counterpart to you!

Hi ian, whats ur book about??

I'm lucky, in a way, to be so obsessive. I just tune everything out. Have gotten evicted, twice, because I just wouldn't stop working on poetry.

Why in the hell would you want to be a writer?

I like your videos. You always get me thinking. Talking about being the best at something, I always remember a Zen master who talked about people getting into the lotus position. Some people couldn't do it, and he noticed that they always felt like shit. But he also noticed the ones who could jump into the position never really had any staying power. There's another Zen thing I heard about four horses, but I only remember two. The fourth one needs to get whipped by the rider's whip and feel the pain deep in its bones to know to finally turn or stop. The first one knows to turn or stop with a tiny jerk of the reigns. When people hear this story they always think they are like the first horse, but really we are all the fourth horse. Maybe the writers quit because they didn't have the drive to push them further and better. To be honest I've never read David Foster Wallace, so I don't really know, but I wonder since he had a mother, a Prof Writer, and a father, a Prof Philosopher, they taught him well (at least he didn't tell them to leave him alone), and he became good at writing, and maybe surrounded by important Profs, he became conceited or thought he's smarter than shit. And ya, he could write. His mom taught him. So what the fuck am I talking about? Would David Foster Wallace been a star if he was born in my shit family? Are there really 16 year old's who are incredible writers with incredible knowledge? I wonder what Rilke's and Rimbaud's parents did? Anyways, I guess my overall theme here is: Work ethic. Mind you, it's not like I'm ever going to learn to play basketball like Lebron.

If you stop writing you don't love writing.