Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist/humorist Gene Weingarten collected 20 of his best articles that have appeared in The Washington Post over the years and published them as a new book titled The Fiddler in the Subway (Simon & Schuster, 2010). In the intro he writes about writing:
“A real writer is someone for whom writing is a terrible ordeal. That is because he knows, deep down, with an awful clarity, that there are limitless ways to fill a page with words, and that he will never, ever, do it perfectly. On some level, that knowledge haunts him all the time. He will always be juggling words in his head, trying to get them closer to a tantalizing, unreachable ideal.”
Truth be told, Weingarten came pretty close to this ideal in his April 2007 article, “Pearles Before Breakfast” which earned him the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. The article is included in the book.
Tony Reinke 
Too true. Strangely helpful. Thanks Tony.
I’m really grateful for this post. I just read “Pearls Before Breakfast” and for the first time really had a sense of appreciation for good writing. Thanks. I think I’ll buy this book. At least add it to my wish list. – DC