Christopher Hitchens - Writing is hard

Christopher Hitchens explained how he finds writing most pleasurable when he sees it in print (33m20s):

"I don't really know if I [enjoy writing] or not. I hate not writing, I know that. I sort of do it because I feel I have to. Sometimes it's a real pleasure doing it. Usually the pleasure comes though when you see it in print. Not until then and usually not until some time after."

Then he explained how he writes:

"I write on table at home in long hand. I sometimes write in bars too, in the afternoon. I go out and find a corner of a bar. If the noise isn’t directed at me me I quite like it if the jukebox is on and people are shouting the odds about a sportsgame and I’m hunched over a bottle in the corner. I write in long hand anyway so I can do it anywhere. Sometimes in airport terminals. And then when I’ve got enough down I start to type it out, editing it as I go. I don’t use any of the new technology stuff."

And at 39m20s he explains how politicians aren't any smarter than the average man. Then at 40 minutes, Hitchens comments on the merits of the American liberal writer:

"Liberals don't make good writers. They want it both ways: they want capitalism to work; but they want to be compassionate about it."

Then Hitchens spoke of Gore Vidal:

"He is the best writer of this time or any time. The man who I've tried to model myself on."

He also said at the beginning:

"On wouldn't be doing one's job if one didn't itch to prick."

In full here.