I think most serious writers, certainly in the modern period, use their own lives or the lives of people close to them or lives they have heard about as the raw material for their creativity.
Chaim PotokIf a person has a contribution to make, he must make it in public. If learning is not made public, it is a waste.
Chaim PotokA book is sent out into the world, and there is no way of fully anticipating the responses it will elicit. Consider the responses called forth by the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare - let alone contemporary poetry or a modern novel.
Chaim Potokโฆeverything has a past. Everything โ a person, an object, a word, everything. If you donโt know the past, you canโt understand the present and plan properly for the future.
Chaim PotokI went away and cried to the Master of the Universe, "What have you done to me? A mind like this I need for a son? A heart I need for a son, a soul I need for a son, compassion I want from my son, righteousness, mercy, strength to suffer and carry pain, that I want from my son, not a mind without a soul!"
Chaim Potok