Chapter 11 Epilogue About Ayn Rand

"My personal life," says Ayn Rand, "is the epilogue to my novel; it contains the line: 'I mean business.' I have lived by the philosophy I express in the book— —It applies equally to my characters as to myself.The specific details are different, but the general idea is the same. "I've been determined to be a writer since I was nine years old, and everything I do is for that purpose. By my own choices and beliefs, I am an American. I was born in Europe, but I came to America , because this is a country built on my moral premise, and the only country where I can write completely freely. I came here alone after graduating from a European college. Odd jobs for a living, until I finally found financial success with writing. No one helped me, and I never thought it was anyone's responsibility to help me.

"When I was in school, I chose history as my major and philosophy as my hobby; the first choice was to obtain the actual experience of human beings in the past for my future writing; There is an objective definition of values. I find that the first has to be learned and the second has to be lived by me. "My ideas have been around for as long as I can remember. I have learned a lot as I grew up and expanded my knowledge of details, of specialized problems, of definitions, of practice—and I plan to This knowledge goes on and on - but I never have to change my basics. In essence, my philosophy is to see man as a heroic being whose happiness is the morality of his life Aim, creation and production are his noblest actions, and reason is his only absolute standard.

"The only person who has benefited me in philosophy is Aristotle. I disagree with many of his philosophical views - but his definition of the laws of logic and the human means of knowing is a remarkable achievement compared with , his fallacies seem irrelevant. You will find that my subtitle for the third part of Atlas Shrugged is a tribute to him. "To all the readers who have discovered and asked me many questions about the idea of ​​further expanding it, I would like to say that I am answering these questions in this It's just an overture. "I trust that no one will ever tell me that my characters don't exist. The writing—and publication—of this book is my proof that they exist."

Ayn Rand, in 1957 —End of the text—