Anyone who teaches and writes and cares about each pursuit has experienced how they can, and maybe always do, compete with each other.

I learned from the New York Times obituary of Irish playwright Tom Murphy, who died this week, that he had this experience in his early years.  In his hometown, Tuam, in County Galway, Ireland, he worked in a sugar factory.  After studying metalworking, he taught it for a time.  But then he quit.  His explanation:  “I found that this thing I had about writing interfered with that.”