It is one test of a fully developed writer that he reminds us of no one but himself.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Every writer, to some extent, writes about himself.
I think that like all writers - and if any writer disagrees with this, then he is not a writer - I write primarily for myself.
Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.
I've always thought a novelist only has one character, and that is himself or herself. In my case, me.
A great writer creates a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out.
It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be that person. Then I meet other writers and realize that they're not.
For me, a writer should be more like a lighthouse keeper, just out there by himself. He shouldn't get his ideas from other people all around him.
Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself.
No one connected intimately with a writer has any appreciation of his temperament, except to think him overdoing everything.
A novelist can never be his own reader, except when he is ridding his manuscript of syntax errors, repetitions, or the occasional superfluous paragraph.