What a writer does

“As a writer you slant all evidence in favor of the conclusions you want to produce and you rarely tilt in favor of the truth. (…) But this is what a writer does: his life is a maelstrom of lying. Embellishment is his focal point. This is what we do to please others. The is what we do in order to flee ourselves. A writer’s physical life is basically one of stasis, and to combat this constraint, an opposite world and another self have to be constructed daily. (…) defeat is good for art: if it was day we made it night, if it was love we made it hate, serenity became chaos, kindness became viciousness, God became the devil, a daughter became a whore.”

De Lunar Park, Bret Easton Ellis.