Writing Stories

"At that time I believed that anything I saw or heard would come in useful for some story. But I have known for a long time now that I am unlikely ever to find any events other than those I experience myself. A man cannot gain control over some else's life, and even if he could he would not invent a new story. There are nearly fifty thousand million people living in the world and every one of them believes that his life is good for at least one story. This thought is enough to make your head spin. If a writer emerged, or better still, was produced, who was obsessed enough to record fifty thousand million stories, and to then cross out all they had in common, how much do you suppose would be left? Scarcely a sentence from each story, from each human fate, a moment like a drop in the ocean, an unrepeatable experience of apprehension or of a meeting, an instant of insight or pain - but who could identify that drop, who could separate it from the flood of the ocean? And why should new stories have to be invented?"

-- From Love and Garbage by Ivan Klíma.