I always feel, and at this point I kind of hope that I always will feel, that I have no idea how things will work out. Because I think that is actually the fact. The minute you start thinking you have it made, you’re in big trouble. Everything is in flux, always.

If you’ve been around as long as I have, watching the literary scene, then you know that who’s in and who’s out changes by the year. It’s really a very fluid situation that requires that the person who is having the good luck now isn’t having it a year or two from now.

Jennifer Egan. This whole blog about famous writers’ pre-success lives is so good. I like that the interviewer always asks about what they were eating in their lean years. People ate a lot of soup. (via somethingchanged)  (via emilygould)

She told the story of a failed attempt to write about identical twin rappers named Dyme. She described following them around and going to a Notorious B.I.G. release party, where her most embarrassing journalistic moment took place.

“I was just trying to find my way around,” she said, “and just trying to blend in and learn the lay of the land, and so I went up to someone and I went, ‘Could you point out Biggie to me?’ And of course it was a posthumous release.”

Jennifer Egan, failed music writer. (via thebronzemedal)