I agree with Keillor, but I also think that he's talking about "Writers" and not writers. Writers who complain that writing is hard, that being blocked is hard, and who don't actually sit down and write through the difficulty, who instead close themselves off from writing while they complain about it being a difficult art. There's nothing saying a person can't complain about the terrible parts of one's job (hell, I feel like I've done nothing BUT complain about my job [and most everything else] for the past two months) - but there's a difference between griping to one's friends about a lousy day-week-month-year at work and bitching publicly about how hard it is to do one's job. And there's a difference between complaining that something is hard and doing it anyway, and in avoiding the difficulty because it's not worth it.

A writer is someone who continues to write despite the difficulty, despite the blocking, despite turning out nothing but crap week after week. In the same way that I'm an event planner only while I continue to plan events (even if they suck, even if my creativity and innovation and ingenuity wash away like nothing), a writer is a writer only while s/he continues to put words down on a page. Sabbaticals and vacations are one thing. Giving up the action in favor of talking about the action is another.