[A]n oft-quoted passage from The Recognitions, spoken by ...

[A]n oft-quoted passage from The Recognitions, spoken by the novel’s protagonist, Wyatt Gwyon:

This passion for wanting to meet the latest poet, shake hands with the latest novelist, get hold of the latest painter, devour . . . what is it? What is it they want from a man that they didn’t get from his work? What do they expect? What is there left of him when he’s done his work? What’s any artist, but the dregs of his work? the human shambles that follows it around. What’s left of the man when the work’s done but a shambles of apology?

[...] Gaddis, who justified his decision to enter the public sphere later in life by saying that ‘the time of being the reclusive unapproachable writer is not only over but to press it on could very well appear as a coy plea for attention’.

From a review of Gaddis's letters by Emmet Stinson