Writing is Easy (part 3)

In the latter years of Georges Simenon's prolific writing life, when he had already published close to 400 novels, Alfred Hitchcock was said to have telephoned, only to be told by Simenon's secretary that he couldn't be disturbed because he had just begun a new novel. Hitchcock, knowing that Simenon was capable of writing one novel -- or two or three -- every month, replied, ''That's all right, I'll wait.''

Excerpted from Deirdre Bair's review of Simenon, a Biography by Pierre Assouline, The New York Times.