I’d underline that, too

Anton Chekhov via Derrick Leon via David Markson via Reading Markson Reading:

You are right in demanding that an artist should take an intelligent attitude to his work, but you confuse two things: solving a problem, and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist.

(I might have buried the lede here: Reading Markson Reading is pretty incredible. Here’s the backstory. Also, here’s some previous love for Markson here on Snarkmarket.)