Percy Bysshe Shelley said the fame of visual and musical artists has never equaled that of poets because of the ability poets have to recreate the world in the imagination of a reader.
Writing is a direct expression of the imagination through language.
A writer must tell the truth. This is a difficult task. Our cultural contract with language is in a constant state of negotiation. A current response to this negotiation is to divest language of all meaning. Readers are expected to impose their own meanings on texts, in disregard or perhaps contradiction of the author's intentions.