Tuesday, July 13, 2010






“Why do we do it, we writers?
‘Of making many books there is no end,’
sighed the teacher of Ecclesiastes some three millennia ago,
and 50,000 new ones will appear this year alone.

Yet we keep at it, cranking out more and more words,
with the potential to bring harm as well as comfort.
I think we do it because each of us has nothing else to offer than
a living point of view
that differentiates us from every other person on this planet.
We must tell our stories to someone…

…Every writer must overcome a kind of shyness,
putting out of mind the fear that we are being arrogant
by thrusting ourselves upon you the reader
and egotistical by assuming our words are worth your time.

Why should you care about what I have to say?
What right have I to impose myself on you?

In another context, Simone Weil presents a kind of answer:
‘I cannot conceive the necessity for God to love me,
when I feel so clearly that even with human beings affection for me
must only be a mistake.
But I can easily imagine that he loves the perspective of creation
which can only be seen from the point where I am.’

That is all any writer can offer,
especially a writer of faith:
a unique perspective of creation,
a point of view visible only from the point where I am…
…We can only write with passion about our own experiences.”

Frederick Buechner