I was in the middle of my second novel and struggling. Instead of engagement, I felt a nagging worry. Had I lost my way? Maybe I had taken a wrong turn – but where? One afternoon, I met a friend of mine, a poet and novelist, for coffee.

'I feel like I'm in a boat in the middle of the ocean and there's no land in sight,' I told him.

He took a sip of his drink and peered at me over his glasses.

'Yeah,' he said. 'And you're building the boat.'
Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life - Dani Shapiro

Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro, page 91