Bad luck Quote by Michael Chabon
““It was in this man's class that I first began to wonder if people who wrote fiction were not suffering from some kind of disorder--from what I've since come to think of, remembering the wild nocturnal rocking of Albert Vetch, as the midnight disease. The midnight disease is a kind of emotional insomnia; at every conscious moment its victim--even if he or she writes at dawn, or in the middle of the afternoon--feels like a person lying in a sweltering bedroom, with the window thrown open, looking up at a sky filled with stars and airplanes, listening to the narrative of a rattling blind, an ambulance, a fly trapped in a Coke bottle, while all around him the neighbors soundly sleep. this is in my opinion why writers--like insomniacs--are so accident-prone, so obsessed with the calculus of bad luck and missed opportunities, so liable to rumination and a concomitant inability to let go of a subject, even when urged repeatedly to do so.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: “The Midnight Disease” in The New Yorker, 2015
Writers often experience a restless, insomnia‑like mental state that fuels obsessive creativity but also hampers letting go.
In simple terms: Writers suffer a restless mental condition that drives both creativity and fixation.
Recognize and manage creative obsession.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- writer’s block
- creative burnout
- night‑time work
- self‑criticism
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How does this “midnight disease” affect your work?
- Can you balance intensity with rest?
Obsessive focus can lead to burnout and missed opportunities.