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Like that, you know. The answer -- the short answer to all those questions is, "Yes." Yes, I'm afraid of all those things.
我当时一直得到诸如此类的质疑。对于这些质疑，最简单的回答是：“怕” 是的，这种种一切都让人害怕。
And I always have been. And I'm afraid of many, many more things besides that people can't even guess at, like seaweed and other things that are scary.
直到今天也一样，其实除了这些，我还害怕很多别人猜不到的东西比方说海草，还有其他吓人的东西。
But, when it comes to writing, the thing that I've been sort of thinking about lately, and wondering about lately, is why?
但是，说到害怕写作，我最近一直在想，我为什么要害怕写作呢？
You know, is it rational? Is it logical that anybody should be expected to be afraid of the work that they feel they were put on this Earth to do.
这难道是一种理性的想法吗？人们害怕从事自己命中注定的工作？这符合逻辑吗？
And what is it specifically about creative ventures that seems to make us really nervous about each other's mental health in a way that other careers kind of don't do, you know?
创造性工作究竟有着怎样的特殊性，以至于让我们为彼此的心智健康担心起来了呢？别的行业可不太会这样，不是吗？
Like my dad, for example, was a chemical engineer and I don't recall once in his 40 years of chemical engineering anybody asking him if he was afraid to be a chemical engineer, you know?
比方说，我爸爸是个化学工程师，在他40年的化学工程生涯中，我不曾记得有人问他是否害怕成为化学工程师。
"That chemical-engineering block, John, how's it going?" It just didn't come up like that, you know?
没人说：“约翰，化学工作遇到瓶颈了吗？怎么样了？” 从来不曾发生过这种问话。
But to be fair, chemical engineers as a group haven't really earned a reputation over the centuries for being alcoholic manic-depressives.
当然，平心而论，化学工程师这一群体，并没有在过去几个世纪里，因酗酒吸毒、狂躁抑郁而享誉全球。
We writers, we kind of do have that reputation, and not just writers,
而我们作家，倒确确实实有着那样的名声，不仅作家，
but creative people across all genres, it seems, have this reputation for being enormously mentally unstable.
各个领域的创作人才似乎都有着情绪极不稳定的恶名。
And all you have to do is look at the very grim death count in the 20th century alone,
只需看看上个世纪，各个领域伟大创作天才们英年早逝的案例，
of really magnificent creative minds who died young and often at their own hands, you know?
常常是年纪轻轻死于自杀，
And even the ones who didn't literally commit suicide seem to be really undone by their gifts, you know.
即使那些没有自杀的，往往也没有完全展现出他们的才华。
Norman Mailer, just before he died, last interview, he said, "Every one of my books has killed me a little more."
诺曼梅勒，在去世前的最后一次采访中说：“我的每一本书都蚕食了一部分的我”。
An extraordinary statement to make about your life's work.
对于你毕生的作品，这是多么激进的说法啊。
But we don't even blink when we hear somebody say this,
但我们对此类说法却视若无睹，
because we've heard that kind of stuff for so long and somehow we've completely internalized and accepted collectively this notion that creativity
因为我们早已见怪不怪了，且不知为何，人们都已经完全内化接受了这一观念。
and suffering are somehow inherently linked and that artistry, in the end, will always ultimately lead to anguish.
这种观念就是：创造力和痛苦息息相关，艺术创造最终一定会导致极度苦闷。
