Advice from the Masters: Murray Gell-Mann

Jul 17, 2017 | Writing A Book

Murray Gell-Mann coined the term, “quark” He was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on elementary particles. But if you asked him about the hardest thing he ever did, he might tell you it was writing a book.

The book in question was the marvelous The Quark and the Jaguar about the science of simplicity and complexity. In the Preface, Gell-Mann compares his work as a physicist with writing a book, this way.

“Writing, on the contrary, means spending a huge number of hours at the keyboard nearly every day. For a fundamentally lazy person like me, it has come as quite a shock.”

Want more? Check out the complete list of Advice from the Masters posts

If you want even more writing advice from writers, check out Jon Winokur’s blog, “AdvicetoWriters.”