Writing, more than any other art, is indexed to the worthiness of the self because it is identified in people's minds with emotion.
I am a man-pen. I feel through the pen, because of the pen.
I write about myself with the same pencil and in the same exercise book as about him. It is no longer I, but another whose life is just beginning.
The Writer's Oath I promise solemnly: 1. to write as often and as much as I can, 2. to respect my writing self, and 3. to nurture the writing of others. I accept these responsibilities and shall honor them always.
Writing is a mode of being. If I write I live.
When you are not writing, you are a writer too. It doesn't leave you.
I think with every writer there are two people there.
When you're an author, you're always two people. Jasper the writer is different from Jasper the person at home.
When you write, you write out of your best self. Everything else drops away.
Besides the drugs and counterculture, I started talking about myself, which is the first thing you do when you are a writer.
One belongs to one's language as a writer.
