Joan Didion (b. 1934, USA)
Why I Write, 1976

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means” (Didion 1976, 207)

I keep saying it all the time. Now I found that Didion wrote that first. So now my words are her words and therefore more respectable. And I can point to her and say – “look, she did so, so I get to do that too, and because she did that before me and got famous, you have to take me seriously when I do it now, because if you don’t, then you do not respect her either, and she is famous, and you really do not want to disrespect someone famous, because everyone would think that you are stupid if you don’t respect famous people and you would miss your chance to be famous by association, and you don’t want that because you are supposed to take every chance at fame you get, no matter how small”.

It will certainly come handy. Not least, considering that I am making art mainly in order to find out what it is about. I wonder who may have said that before me. Search in progress.

Reference
Didion, Joan. 1976. “Why I Write”. In New York Times, p. 207.