Ta-Nahesi Coates on writing:
Writing is really hard work–mostly because thinking is really hard work. When you don’t want to do that work, but you want the meager payment it offers, the fleeting fame it brings, then you resort to thinking on the cheap. You go for shock. And you do it that way because you have nothing to offer except your rep as contrarian, and a provocateur. You do it because you are lazy.