A creative writer should have a social conscience. I have a duty towards society. The sense of duty is an obsession. I must remain accountable to myself
Mahasweta Devi “Resurgence Magazine” Sept/Oct 2003
I’ve implied that the writer functions in his or her society as a kind of soothsayer, a truth teller; that writing is not mere self-expression but a view of society and the world at large, and that the novel is a moral instrument. Moral implies political, and traditionally the novel has been used not only as a vehicle for social commentary but as a vehicle for political commentary as well. The novelist, at any rate, still sees a connection between politics and the moral sense, even if politicians gave that up some time ago. By ‘political’ I mean having to do with power: who’s got it, who wants it, how it operates; in a word, who’s allowed to do what to whom, who gets what from whom, who gets away with it and how.
Margaret Atwood Second Words (353)