Marguerite Duras, from an interview in Two By Duras:
Alcohol is irreplaceable. It's perfect. But it's death. I've almost always written on alcohol, and I've always been afraid. I've always been afraid that alcohol would prevent me from being logical, I've been afraid that it would show in my writing. Now, without alcohol, I'm no longer afraid. But the moment I stopped drinking I was afraid I'd stop writing. The writing in books such as The Lover is, as a line of Baudelaire calls it, 'belle d'abandone', beautiful in its abandonment, in its loss. I've no idea if this abandonment has always been within me, forgotten. But it surfaced when I wrote The Lover. I wrote it without meaning to write, it happened[....] I didn't think about the style, I didn't think about how I'd write it, and when I started writing I felt that the book itself was the style. I had the impression of not writing at all, I don't remember having 'done the writer', as the Italians say.
The heart of The Lover is myself. I am the heart and all the rest of the book, because there's no literature there: only writing. These days no one writes. Or almost no one. There are books, books made out of books, and behind them there is no one.
... the clandestine nature of writing. I can only write for people if I don't know them.
I work a lot, very hard. I've always enjoyed working. Now I work without alcohol. I hope I'll be able to continue to work without alcohol. Because of my liver. I've ended up with a very small liver. That's terrible! Terrible because alcohol is so positive, so perfect, such a major occupation. There is nothing like alcohol. Just look at all the drunks in the taverns. They talk to themselves, they are perfectly happy, they are in harmony with their beings. They are like kings. They are the authentic kings of the world.