Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing's Advice to Young Writers: "Don't Assume You'll Have It Forever"

Outspoken novelist Doris Lessing, 88, never cared much about winning the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature: "Oh Christ, I couldn't care less," she said at the time. Now, she adds in a radio interview, winning the prestigious award has totally messed up her life and creative energy: "It has stopped; I don't have any energy anymore. This is why I keep telling anyone younger than me, don't imagine you'll have it forever. Use it while you've got it, because it'll go; it's sliding away like water down a plug hole." [NYT] Oh, shit.