Who wants to become a writer?
And why?
Because it’s the answer
to everything. . . .
It’s the streaming reason for living.
To note, to pin down, to build up,
to create, to be astonished at nothing,
to cherish the oddities,
to let nothing go down the drain,
to make something,
to make a great flower out of life,
even if it’s a cactus.

—Enid Bagnold

When I sit down to write a book,
I do not say to myself,
“I am going to produce
a work of art.” I write it
because there is some
lie that I want to expose,
some fact to which
I want to draw attention,
and my initial concern
is to get a hearing.

—George Orwell