The Outsider is not sure who he is.
He has found an “I”, but it is not his true “I”. His main business is to find his way back to himself.
Wilson never doubted his abilities as a writer.
He kept a journal: from its pages sprung the outline of “The Outsider,” his first book, which was a critical and commercial success.
As a teenager, he worked in a coffee shop at night so that he could write in the British Museum during the day, that is, he oriented his life around his passion, not the other way around. And he kept his financial needs to the bare minimum in order to be able to devote as much time as possible to writing, rather than working.
He was incredibly well read and had, at a very young age, the self-confidence to speak authoritatively and critically on the works of well-established authors (like Camus, Steinbeck, and Hemingway.)