writer: n; 20. “No matter how complicated, circuitous, or labyrinthine the artist’s creative sources and resources may be, and no matter what spectacular exceptions could be put before me, I believe that the writer must fulfill his artistic obligations in his work, be severe with himself and with his vocation; as a public person he must remain, no matter what the price, exigent with himself and with society, responsible in the best sense of the word, to truth and society; he must become the honest conscience in which his fellow man can believe. In its sublime attempt to capture the ineffable essence of man and the cosmos, literature invents its own laws, free of all authority outside its own standards for perfection. Artistic consciousness has to discover its echo, its validation, in a corresponding ethical consciousness. Let us not fool ourselves; it has never been easy to follow such a noble spiritual code… The poverty, solitude, and lack of understanding that are a writer’s lot seem at times easier to bear than the fact that he does not have access to the public forum, or that no one is interested in the opinion, good intentions, or potential competence that he embodies.” -Norman Manea; On Clowns: The Dictator and the Artist.