Borges on reading and writing

Jorge Luis Borges (1963) by Alicia D'Amico

What I have read is far more important than 
what I have written. 
For one reads what one likes - 
yet one writes not what one would like to write 
but what one is able to write. (p. 98)

When I write, I do not think of the reader 
(because the reader is an imaginary character), 
and I do not think of myself 
(perhaps I am an imaginary character also), 
but I think of what I am trying to convey 
and I do my best not to spoil it. (p. 116-117)

Quote from Borges' when he gave the Norton Lectures (from This Craft of Verse).