“A writer’s life is in his work, and that is the place to find him.” — Henry James

Raold Dahl's writing hut (from: hermastersvoice)

"Is there something frankly embarrassing or shameful about being a 'writer'?

The public identification does seem just a bit self-conscious, at times. Like identifying oneself as a 'poet,' 'artist,' 'seer,' 'visionary.'

Yet you are, are you not, a 'writer'? After all these years?

If I’m required to identify myself on a form, I write 'teacher.' I’ve been a teacher almost as long as I’ve been writing. [Pause.] I think of myself less as a writer than as a person who writes — or tries to. Each morning is a kind of obstacle course in which the obstacles seem to have all the advantage.

A curious and unconvincing sort of modesty! Your name is on your book covers, after all.

But my name is not me."

— Joyce Carol Oates, The Washington Post
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