Writing and that

"All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery… One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality."

George Orwell, in “Why I Write.” (From Mise en Abyme). (via mills)