The Character of Writers: E.B. White
“Most of us, out of a politeness made up of faint curiosity and profound resignation, go out to meet the smiling stranger with a gesture of surrender and a fixed grin, but White has always taken to the fire escape. He has avoided the Man in the Reception Room as he has avoided the interviewer, the photographer, the microphone, the rostrum, the literary tea, and the Stork Club. His life is his own. He is the only writer of prominence I know of who could walk through the Algonquin lobby or between the tables at Jack and Charlie's and be recognized only by his friends.”
— James Thurber, E. B. W., "Credos and Curios"
From my reading, E.B. White literally and routinely took to the fire escape as a method of avoidance. Allow this to give you permission to be how you need to be to get your writing done, your goals met whatever they are.
A hangup of mine is a fear of promoting myself, promoting my book. When I’ve felt the suffocating pressure to compete with others for coveted publication spaces, I remember E.B. White. Perhaps there’s another way besides Facebook (insert today’s popular virtual hangout), a fire escape \o/
photo thanks to quinntheislander at pixababy.com