A certain slightly cruel disregard for the feelings of living people is simply part of the package. I think a writer, if he's any good, is not an entirely benign entity in the world.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I believe that writers, unless they consider themselves terribly exquisite, are at heart people who live by night, a little bit outside society, moving between delinquency and conformity.
I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to have.
I think that like all writers - and if any writer disagrees with this, then he is not a writer - I write primarily for myself.
I don't lead a writer's life. And I think that can be a source of suspicion and irritation to some people.
A writer doesn't write about just anything. He writes about things he has an affinity for.
I'm completely indifferent to what genre I read provided that I feel sympathy with how a writer perceives being alive in the world.
As a writer, it's a great narrative tool to have that character who is slightly detached but at the same time observant of his reality, because I think that's pretty much what being a writer is - being there, watching and internalizing.
Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.
In writing non-fiction about people who are living, you are always walking a fine line, carrying a burden to be fair that, in my opinion, should always be there.
There's always this sense of incredulity that writers feel, because they're usually living flat and ordinary lives, because they have to.