Just wow

In 2006, Ian Parker penned the definitive profile of Christopher Hitchens for The New Yorker. Here's his take on how the uber prolific Hitchens writes: "He almost never uses the backspace, delete, or cut-and-paste keys. He writes a single draft, at a speed that caused his New Statesman colleagues to place bets on how long it would take him to finish an editorial. What emerges is ready for publication, except for one weakness: he’s not an expert punctuator, which reinforces the notion that he is in the business of transcribing a lecture he can hear himself giving." Wow. Such raw talent simply takes one's breath away.