I just found this quotation from Philip Roth's The Ghost Writer scribbled on the back of a piece of paper that has nothing to do with Roth or even writing. (Such random notes, which of course are never to be found when you actually need them, are one of my bad habits. I have every intention of curing myself of it...someday.)
I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning. And if I knock off from this routine for as long as a day, I’m frantic with boredom and a sense of waste.
As happens so often, Roth hits the nail right on the neurotic's head. Indeed, that’s writing: a sometimes nauseating roller-coaster ride swooping between monotony and terror, with just enough time for tea in the pause between high and low.
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