Writing about oneself...

"Writing about oneself is always a conceit, but usually a harmless one, unless a writer tries to pay off grudges, as do some foolish celebrity memorialists."
Max Hastings, The Guardian, 16 April 2005.

Hmmm. On first reading I agreed wholeheartedly with Mr. Hastings, I would have been grateful to shake his hand should I have bumped into him on Regents Street, newspaper under his arm. I liked this particular quotation so much, in fact, that I went to the bother of recording it in my notebook - a process, you understand, that involves:

a) locating said notebook in cavernous bag
b) finding (in horror) sandwich crumbs, bits of ham, pieces of chewing gum, stray tissues, the odd tampon stuck inside
c) shaking notebook open to remove above items
d) searching for pen that works (at least four minutes)
e) trying to remove pen lid, one-handed, whilst not dropping notebook, decaf cappuccino and jumper
f) finding blank page (becoming increasingly difficult)
g) transcribing aforementioned quotation onto page
h) reversal of above to restore notebook to bag.

As you can see, sometimes it's the small things that cause me the most consternation. Anyway, I digress, I'm talking about MH's little opinion about writing about oneself always being "a conceit". If that's true, then surely thinking about oneself is also a conceit, as in my mind, writing is just thinking with a pen... We're all inherently selfish, me above most of you I suspect, but writers seem to be charged with the introspective crticism more than most artists. Think about it, and be conceited!