Roland Barthes, way back in 1967 in his essay "The Death of the Author," states that the meaning of a text is determined by the reader rather than the author. This is probably true; however, I am a writer. My texts will be interpreted by the reader from the reader's experiences encompassing all his or her knowledge. Still, I write for myself or to say, I write because I believe something needs to be said. Whether that is important to another person is beyond my control. I hope it will be and hope readers will connect with the writing, characters, plots, and so forth. I also write for the sheer beauty of the writing, the poetry in the prose, the well wrought sentence.
