The creative process, hell—living, is full of doubts. Artists must forge their way through, and they leave us with their impressions of what's in store.

Martha Graham: There is not satisfaction whatsoever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest.

Somerset Maugham: There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

Henry James: We work in the dark, we do what we can, we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.

Bernard Cooper: I have kept these quotes at the ready not only for the sake of my students but because I've had to. Desperation is good for recall. Each of these quotes has sustained me, has served as a compass during those times I've found myself adrift. I figure, if these artist were stirred to make something fine and epigrammatic of their uncertainty, then uncertainty is a state every writer need to embrace. And doubt does have its secondary gains. It keeps you alert. It prevents complacency. If forces you to ask more questions that you can answer, which takes, it seems to me, some measure of courage. Doubt may even be a species of optimism, since it suggests that one is striving at all times to make ones work better.

From Bernard Cooper, "Demystifying the Writing Process," The Writer's Chronicle, 46:6, Summer 2014, p 108.