Why I Write

       Although Didion is inspired by Orwell, her purpose for writing is completely different. Didion wrote, "I knew I couldn't think, all i knew was what I couldn't do. All I knew then was what I wasn't, and it took me some years to discover what I was. Which was a writer." Later she states, "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means." Didion writes because she enjoys learning more about herself, and unlike Orwell, the public, politics and what is taking place in the world does not seem to affect her or her writing.
       Orwell however wrote, "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand. It seems to me nonsense, in a period like our own, to think one can avoid writing of such subjects." Orwell seems to write about what he already known and wishes to inform his readers. He gives his opinions on politics and the world, and writes about what angers or frustrates him. Orwell is deeply affected by the era he lives in and his work is greatly influenced by that. "I wasn't born for an age like this," Orwell claims. Although he tried at one point to stray away from writing there was something pulling him back.
       I write simply to be creative. I don't make a living out of writing, nor do I write because I feel like it is the only thing I am decent at. I don't write about politics or write because I don't know the answer and wish to to learn that answer while discovering something about myself. I simply write for the joy and satisfaction of putting my ideas down on paper, with the hopes and intent that someone will find as much pleasure in reading it as I did in writing it.