Fiction

Quoting other people is intended to make yourself look clever, without the effort, imagination or vulnerability to say something personal. Or else, 'that guy said it way better than I ever could.' The writer wants to be the revelator, but all the veins have been so repeatedly plundered for private pleasure, then whored to the printing press, that we sit wanking blankly at our own thinly veiled confessions, in the tragic hope they 'connect'. Do you ever read back what you've just written? I try not to. Apparently, when writing his recently published 'Chronicles' book, Dylan, in certain chapters, couldn't read back some of what he'd written, for fear he would cringe too much and never end up writing anything.