“I started out with nothing in the world but a kind of passion, a driving desire. I don’t know where it came from, and I do not know why---or why I have been so stubborn about it that nothing could deflect me. But this thing between me and my writing is the strongest bond I have ever had---stronger than any bond or any engagement with any human being or with any other work I’ve ever done.” Katherine Anne Porter Is a passion a curse or a blessing?