Compelled to write? Fame not guaranteed

The urge to write stuff and put it between covers is powerful, as one can see by the godawful books that emerge every day—vanity, thy name is publishing!—and anybody with the authorial urge ought to visit the underground stacks of a major public library and feel the chill of oblivion. 

Garrison Keillor, "Bonding Through Books," Chicago Tribune, Dec. 2, 2005, p. C19