“You need three things to become a successful novelist: talent, luck and discipline. Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling, and you just have to hope and trust in the other two.”

American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer

Michael Chabon is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. He was born in Washington, D.C., and is known for fiction and essays that have made him a prominent contemporary literary voice. He studied first at Carnegie Mellon University and then at the University of Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 1984. He later earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine. His work spans novels, screenwriting, columns, and short fiction.