" STREITFELD: "Scared" is a word that you often used to describe yourself.

WALLACE: Writers tend to be shy, bookish people. We're always on the fringes of the party, resenting the attention paid to others. And then finally when attention is paid to you, it is great and yet part of it sucks you liver out. Deep down it was the thing you always felt would make everything OK, and then you get it, and find everything isn't OK, and you're still scared. "

― David Foster Wallace , David Foster Wallace: The Last Interview and Other Conversations