"I think Rimbaud said it best when he said if you're telling the truth, you bring back the shape of the thing... but I think what he was talking about was, really, bringing something like emotional honesty to whatever you're writing.  If you do that, then the shape of the piece, of the writing, becomes so much more of a pleasure, because you're really excavating something that's unique to you, which is the emotional truth of the situation."