I Feel His Pain

Michael Cunningham is interviewed by Bloomberg (?!) and inevitably, he gets asked the ‘how has your life changed’ question.

My life has changed more than I thought it would. I like to think that I’m still the same lovely, unspoiled person I’ve always been — though some days I’m not so sure about that. Before “The Hours” came out, I was pretty much left alone to just do my work. After “The Hours,” it’s a real battle to get the writing done. There’s so much else going on, the phone rings every five minutes. I’ve had to learn to shut a lot of things out. More importantly, I’ve had to find a new “driving force.” I used to always write from a certain fury about being under- recognized, under-appreciated, and underpaid. And now suddenly I find myself over-recognized, over-appreciated, and overpaid! What kind of fuel runs the engine now?

Man, I feel his pain. He’s had to shut himself off in a retreat in Tuscany to finish his new book!
I kid. I like the guy. Link via Mark.