I’ve heard Radu Paraschivescu saying somethings in the lines of:
RO: “Și în plus eu n-aș fi putut să-mi exercit ceea ce – pornind ca o plăcere – pare să fi devenit vocație. Pare! – așa, un bemol la cheie. N-aș fi putut scrie în altă limbă. Eu n-am avut răbdarea asiatică a lui Petru Popescu care a scris maculare întregi și le a rupt ca să și cristalizeze exprimarea în engleză.”
EN: “And besides, I wouldn’t have been able to exercise what – starting as a pleasure – seems to have become a vocation. Seems! – like a flat note in the key. I wouldn’t have been able to write in another language. I didn’t have the Asiatic patience of Petru Popescu, who wrote entire reams and tore them apart to crystallize his expression in English.”
Gala Galaction has burned some of his writings.
It makes you think – what’s the purpose of writing if you delete some things you write?
The answer? The writing process itself makes you a better writer. And, hopefully, a better human.
Sometimes, the path (writing, doing, working, creating) is better than the result (a specific aim and achievement).
You become better by doing the work itself.