“Why I Write” is an interesting and inspiring piece of work written by George Orwell in 1946. I wanted to have it posted here on my website for digital preservation. I have a lot of content here in this website that serve that purpose: to be available.

I don’t make a dime with this website. Well, I actually pay a tiny sum per year to keep the domain registered and working, and pay for the hosting company to keep the website working.

I can’t do much for Orwell though — I paid for and read a couple of his books, so I have contributed to his legacy from a monetary perspective, since this is what this post is about: licensing and money.

All I can do is share this link: https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/why-i-write/

There you have it! Go there and read it if you like.

In case the content is no longer published in the above URL, I’m sorry. I wish I could have helped in that sense when it was possible, but when I saw this right in the first line of the page:

This material remains under copyright in some jurisdictions, including the US, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the Orwell Estate.

— The Orwell Foundation

…I didn’t feel comfortable in sharing it.

However,

I still can use an LLM to summarize the original text so that you, the visitor of this website, could be scanning the topics and get some inspiration should the original text sank with the Orwell Foundation someday.

Thank you Claude and its Haiku for this.

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“Why I Write” — a reflective piece on his development as a writer and his motivations for writing.

Key points:

Early influences — Orwell traces his desire to write back to childhood (age 5–6), shaped by loneliness and isolation. He developed a habit of creating imaginary stories and internal narratives that lasted into adulthood, which he believes formed the foundation of his literary voice.

Four motives for writing — He identifies four core drivers behind prose writing:

1. Sheer egoism — desire for recognition, remembrance, and validation
2. Aesthetic enthusiasm — appreciation for beauty in language and form
3. Historical impulse — documenting facts and truth for posterity
4. Political purpose — pushing society toward desired change

The tension between art and politics — Orwell describes how his early inclination toward ornate, descriptive writing shifted. The Spanish Civil War and rise of totalitarianism forced him to become a political writer. He argues that since 1936, all his serious work has been “against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism.”

The central struggle — He grapples with balancing political conviction with artistic integrity. His solution: conscious awareness of one’s political bias actually protects aesthetic integrity, rather than compromising it. Good writing requires both purpose and craft.

The paradox of writing — He ends by acknowledging that all writers are driven by vanity and mystery — yet good prose requires efacing one’s personality. The best work, he reflects, came when he maintained clear political purpose.