“Writers who get written about become self-conscious. They develop a regrettable habit of looking at themselves through the eyes of other people. They are no longer alone, they have an investment in critical praise, and they think they must protect it. This leads to a diffusion of effort. The writer watches himself as he works. He grows more subtle and he pays for it by loss of organic dash.” PeopleThinkingWritingSelfEyeGrowsLossEffortPayWatchesWrittenHabitProtectConsciousPraiseInvestmentCriticalSubtleSelf ConsciousThrough The EyesDiffusion Book:Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler Source: Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler
“I think there's something quite interesting about the almost tragic quality of a lot of overwrought prose, because it has a much more self-conscious awareness of its own failure to touch the real.” ThinkingRealSelfInterestingQualityAwarenessConsciousProseTragicSelf ConsciousConscious Awareness Author:China Mieville