A writer, or at least a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: โWhom do you write for?โ The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover I donโt want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each otherโs existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author.
W. H. AudenHarrow the house of the dead; look shining at New styles of architecture, a change of heart.
W. H. AudenIf the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then the best lives for the writer to observe are those in which the role of natural necessity is clearest, namely, the lives of the very poor.
W. H. Auden