The Writer's Job Is to Tell the Truth

The writer’s first job is not to have opinions but to tell the truth…and refuse to be an accomplice of lies and misinformation. Literature is the house of nuance and contrariness against the voices of simplification. The job of the writer is to make it harder to believe the mental despoilers. The job of the writer is to make us see the world as it is, full of many different claims and parts and experiences. It is the job of the writer to depict the realities: the foul realities, the realities of rapture. It is the essence of the wisdom furnished by literature…to help us to understand that, whatever is happening, something else is always going on.

SUSAN SONTAG