“The writer isn’t made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.”

Interview in Writers at Work (1988)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The writer isn’t made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to th…" by E.L. Doctorow?

E.L. Doctorow25

novelist, editor, professor 1931–2015

Grace Paley (1922–2007) American writer and activist

“An elegant writer has observed, that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife.”

Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) British priest and writer

Vol. I; LXXI
Lacon (1820)

“If you need drugs to be a good writer, you're not a good writer.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

The Rod Serling bio page on the Internet Movie DataBase.
Other

“In this century the writer has carried on a conversation with madness. We might almost say of the twentieth-century writer that he aspires to madness. Some have made it, of course, and they hold special places in our regard. To a writer, madness is a final distillation of self, a final editing down. It's the drowning out of false voices.”

Don DeLillo book The Names

Source: The Names (1982), Ch. 5

“A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

“The reason that I like to use classical myths as models is because African American writers and African American stories are usually understood as occurring in some kind of vacuum — because of slavery.”

Jesmyn Ward (1977) American writer

Source: On using mythology in her works in “INTERVIEWS: Powell's Interview: Jesmyn Ward, Author of 'Sing, Unburied, Sing'” https://www.powells.com/post/interviews/powells-interview-jesmyn-ward-author-of-sing-unburied-sing in Powell City of Books (2017 Aug 29)

“In as much as people are fascinated by stories, we writers have a duty to reflect issues that need attention in society.”

Suraj Sani (1996) Nigerian writer, Spoken word artist

Interview (12-12-2020), Vanguard Nigeria https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/12/how-my-writings-would-contribute-to-the-fight-against-terrorism-suraj-sani/