The dominant and most deep-dyed trait of the journalist is his timorousness [timidity]. Where the novelist fearlessly plunges into the water of self-exposure, the journalist stands trembling on the shore in his beach robe. Not for him the strenuous athleticism--which is the novelist's daily task--of laying out his deepest griefs and shames before the world. The journalist confines himself to the clean, gentlemanly work of exposing the griefs and shames of others.
Janet Malcolm, The Journalist and the Murderer, 1990
Janet Malcolm, The Journalist and the Murderer, 1990
What rubbish! Journalists and novelists are indistinguishable: they both write fiction.
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