Albee, from Beckett Remembering:
I've never felt Sam to be a pessimistic playwright. A pessimist does not try to write. The true pessimist wouldn't take the trouble of writing. Writing is an attempt to communicate, and if you're a pessimist you say communication is impossible: you wouldn't do it.
Much earlier he had some other person talking about something which seemed the opposite.
Anyway, thinking about how wanting to write means being happy enough to just be alone and letting the thoughts in your own mind entertain you. This, to an extent, suggests not desiring the company of other people. It doesn't mean being entirely indifferent to the company of others or even just always prefering to be alone. But for me when younger, and plenty of others with writing aspirations I'm sure, when the moment comes that we ought to write, we couldn't quite stand to just be alone with just ourselves. And in such a situation trying to learn to not desire to actually communicate, to not actually desire the company of others, would seem helpful. Such a person then, prefering to just be alone, is in a much better position to write.
But it's just a question of degree really. Of course, hopefully, you still desire some company, but you also want some alone time. Some 'hush' time as described in this book Fearless Creating I've been reading.
Feeling that better now. Getting better at being alone. Don't feel so much as if I have some psychic connection with my fellow humans which had been severed thus leaving me too alone. Perhaps becoming a person who likes to be alone at times is in part a matter of having had enough quality not-alone-time with enough people.
