“Even though I hate taking on all the responsibility myself and I’m often crazed,” she said, “the moment that I hold a book I’ve completed, it makes up for all the uncertainty of getting there.”

Source: Maybe It’s Time for Plan C article in the New York Times

While this article as a whole isn’t about books, I think this quote captures what many authors, illustrators, photographers, editors, designers, and others experience every day. The process doesn’t always go smoothly, we make decisions along the way and hope that they’re right, we want each book to turn out well, we hope others will see in it what we see. But when the book is finally done and we can hold it in our hands for the first time, we feel (at least for a moment) satisfied.