Hunger and Loneliness
In the preface of his book, Shifu You'll Do Anything For a Laugh (2001), Mo Yan writes about his 'muses' and what inspired him to be a writer. One of his muses was hunger, and I had been talking to Xifo just yesterday about how life's struggles are important and helpful.
On why Mo Yan decided to become a writer:
When we said we didn't believe anyone could be so rich as to eat jiaozi three times a day, the former student said scornfully, “He's a writer, for goodness sake! You understand? A writer!” That's all I needed to know: become a writer and you can eat meaty jiaozi three times a day. Life doesn't get any better than that. Why, not even the gods could do better. That's when I made up my mind to become a writer someday.
It was one of the most fascinating and inspiring prefaces, and I made it required reading for Xifo, and I read parts of it to Xilo.
Here's another great part:
Don't for a minute think there was no pleasure in our lives back then. We had fun doing lots of things. Topping the list of fun things to do was gleefully eating something we'd never considered food before.