quoth

I've been reading Ambivablog almost daily since I found her while blogroll surfing last year. After posting a Lao Tzu Quote this morning, she responds in the comments:

It occurs to me that this is also true of writers -- a writer is best when people barely notice that s/he exists. The words appear to be no more than a pane of clean glass between you, the reader, and what it feels like you're simply looking at. A show-offy writer (as I know I often am) muscles in between you and what you're looking at and says, "Look at me!" Or makes a stained-glass window instead of a clear one. You may admire the window, but you can't see the world.

Simply bad writers, on the other hand, write dirty windows that make everything they look out on as ugly and graceless as a strip mall.