As a writer, I'm not convinced that we are the best equipped to understand how we go about the business of literary production.

In truth, even if they have an imperfect insight into their own methods, I still slightly mistrust writers of fiction who are assured literary critics; it makes me suspect that they favour the word over the world it should describe. Such scribes fall victim too easily to the solecism of equating style with morality.

The novelist, quite rightly, fears the psychoanalyst as both an enemy and a usurper.

Will Self Quotes