Nick Hornby on Writing

"Every time I read a biography of a novelist, I discover that the novels in question are autobiographical to an almost horrifying degree. [...] In Nigel Jones' Through a Glass Darkly we learn that Patrick Hamilton had a disastrous crush on a prostitute, and that, like Bone in Hamilton's Hangover Square, his obsession with a young actress was deranged, although he stopped short of murdering her. And, of course, like all of his characters, Hamilton was a drunk. I'm sure that a biography of Tolkien would reveal that The Lord of the Rings was autobiographical, too—that Tolkien actually fell down a hole and found a place called Central Earth, where there were a whole bunch of Bobbits. Some people—critics, mostly—would argue that this diminishes the achivement somehow, but it's the writing that's hard, not the invention."

—From the Polysyllabic Spree (his book review column from "The Believer")