Conrad on the Business of Writing

I have no doubt, however, that there had been moments during the writing of the book when I was an extreme revolutionist....I was simply attending to my business. In the matter of all my books I have always attended to my business. I have attended to it with complete self surrender. And this statement, too, isn't a boast. I could not have done otherwise. It would have bored me too much to make-believe.

—Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent a Simple Tale