If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.

The remark is a call to creative agency: when the literature you need does not exist—because of gaps in imagination, representation, or cultural attention—the remedy is not only to wait for others but to become the author yourself. It frames writing as an act of necessity and responsibility, especially for voices and experiences historically excluded from publishing. The quote also implies a practical ethic for artists: desire can be diagnostic. Wanting a particular kind of book may reveal an unmet aesthetic or moral need, and the writer’s task is to meet it by making the work real, even without precedent or permission.

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.