Novelists as Introverts

The one drawback to writing a novel is the being alone...That's the difference between a novelist and a journalist. The journalist, the newspaper reporter, is always rushing, hunting, meeting people, digging up facts. Cooking a story. The journalist writes surrounded by people, and always on deadline, crowded and hurried. It's exciting and fun. The journalist researches a story. The novelist imagines it. 

Chuck Palahnuik, Stranger Than Fiction, 2004