“I'm not even sure of the importance of books, or of my books to people. However, I'd like to do something practical. I'd like people to pay more attention, and I don't mean have more readers or sell more copies. It seems to me that I'm always bringing something horrible to the attention of my readers and nobody does anything about it. So I sometimes think, well, perhaps I should stop expecting people to do something and get up and do it myself.”
Didion's sense of her own lack of importance springs from a sense of humility which is apparent in her self-questioning stance. It is perhaps what makes her unflinching criticism of American society so convincing and ultimately sympathetic. Though she appears to underplay her own success as a writer, she is true to herself and her themes in seeing alienation even in the relationship between herself and her readers.
from "Reported lost, looking for America." Excerpted from: The Times [London]: 22 January, 1993.
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