Chekhov, a doctor by profession, said that medicine was his legal wife, while literature was only his lover. The Russian author took advantage of this double condition: his consultation served him as a privileged laboratory for the miseries of the soul. The precariousness of the literary profession forces most contemporary writers to practice this double life. The fact that very few can survive dedicated exclusively to creation raises reasonable questions: Does literature feed on the professional knowledge of part-time authors, or does it suffer from the lack of a more complete dedication? Isabel P. Fuentes alternates her position as director of the CaixaForum Madrid with the writing of novels. Miquel Molina also leads a double life: he is deputy editor of the newspaper La Vanguardia and novelist. Both will discuss their status as extramarital writers.
