Feb 14
I like to think that we have a spiritual connection with the authors whose work speaks to us, especially those that touch us when we are first starting out. Whether those writers are living or dead, there is a vital thread that connects us to their thoughts and experiences, as if we knew them, and they continue to be alive through us—they exert their influence on us as writers, as readers, as people sojourning briefly through a sliver of the world. They become part of us, as deeply embedded as DNA.
— Dan Chaon, from his introduction to Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
