“…the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.”

—William Faulkner, Banquet speech

I came across this quote when looking through some old posts and I wanted to share it on its own. Earlier this year, I referenced it when discussing how ‘Your Fave is Problematic—That’s Okay’ and it works well in that context. That said, it’s still wonderful separate from the point I was making about challenging fiction. If we’re not writing about that central conflict, then why are we writing? (FWIW, I recommend reading the whole speech.)