Marcel Proust wrote in a cork-lined room to shut out all but the
sound of his own memories. Whenever recent writers write of writing
they tend to refer to Proust and his soundproof room, but to write
of writing is already perhaps to take the path of Proustian
self-absorption and to reveal which one of the two sorts of writers
one is. The one sort has himself for subject and inspiration, the
other looks outward and marvels at the otherness of others.
"End Notes On the Two Kinds of Writers" Ralph McInerny
http://catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Crisis/1998-06/end_notes.html