SOURCE: "Jean Rhys on Herself as a Writer," in Caribbean Women Writers: Essays from the First International Conference, edited by Selwyn R. Cudjoe, Calaloux Publications, 1990, pp. 109-15.

In the following excerpt, Gregg compiles letters and autobiographical sources in which Rhys comments on the craft of writing.

Writing gave shape and meaning to Jean Rhys's life: "Until I started to write, and concentrated on writing, it was a life in which I didn't quite know what was going to happen" [interview with Mary Cantwell, Mademoiselle, October 1974]. Rhys brought unswerving commitment and a relentless capacity for hard work to her writing. In an interview in her later years [with Thomas Staley, in Jean Rhys: A Critical Study, 1979], she referred to her reclusive lifestyle: "I don't see how you can write without shutting everything else out."

In conversations with David Plante Rhys emphasized the sacrifices demanded of her craft:

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