“I don’t believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.” — Pablo Picasso

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“It is in these moments of tender and ridiculous nostalgia that I know something inside me is still broken.” –Steve Almond

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Perhaps my previous post was not clear enough in its intentions. Instead of portraying myself as a writer full of self loathing, I was hoping to spark a conversation about which writers invited us (you, me, them) to start writing.

For me, it was Vonnegut. But his work was just that–an invitation to pick up a pencil. Now, I return to his work to remind myself of why I started. But rarely do I find myself inspired keep writing. When I’m “blocked” or lacking proper motivation to create, I turn to two books: Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son and Richard Russo’s The Whore’s Child (I obviously like possessive nouns and references to Catholicism). There’s something about these two books–the messiness of Johnson and the tightness of Russo–that grease my gears.

So, in an attempt to beef up my bookshelf and possibly add to my well (is that what they call it, the well?), my question to you all is this: who (or what) invited you to write and who (or what) inspires you to keep writing?