There is a hidden secret to creators — one that they do not realize, and yet even if they did, is very hard to recover from.
When they are young, they express the immature spirit of the times, which is how they become popular, and why some of their earlier books tend to catch popularity.
When they get older, especially if they have already “made it”, besides losing the excitement, and besides belonging to a now older, busier, and more differentiated generation, they have grown in maturity, and thus express a spirit no longer of the time, but a little beyond it, a little more complex, more subtle, and thus, less resonant.
It is very difficult for an author to recapture the popular imagination again, or perhaps most choose not to, after they have done it once, preferring to follow the path of their own soul, rather than the clamor of the marketplace.
One realizes after a point that one really creates to create — both for others and oneself, but not as much as to just write. It is only enjoyable when one stops thinking about the opinions of others, and the worrying never improved the writing in the first place.
