booklat:

“Life scars the writer but he is not without weapons of vengeance. The art of fiction is a prism that he can use to refract human experience. That one can write about it brings him, if not deeper understanding, some kind of peace. In other words, the writer is first a human being, before he is anything else, prone, like much of mankind, to fits of joy and pain. What happens to those around him — and yes, to him — is legitimate material, but only if he is able to illumine it with a special insight.”

Kerima Polotan (16 Dec 1925 – 19 Aug 2011), wrote this in her foreword to Stories (UP Press, 1998). She was reacting to the criticism of her use of personal experiences in writing fiction.