The qualities an author needs

According to McKee, a writer needs certain qualities.

First of all comes a love of story and the dramatic, with all its sudden surprises, and revelations.

Close behind it comes the love of truth and the belief that lies cripple everything, for every truth must be questioned down to one's own secret motives.
The list goes on ~ a love of humanity, an ability to empathise, to crawl inside the skins of others and see with their eyes
A love of sensation - recognition of the physical and inner senses
A love of dreaming - where imagination takes you
A love of humour - life's saving grace, the one that restores balances
A love of language - the sound and sense it creates, an understanding of syntax and semantics
A love of duality - that feel for life's hidden contradictions, and a healthy suspicion that things are not what they seem
A love of perfection - to write and write in pursuit of the perfect moment, the perfect sentence
A love of uniqueness, the thrill of audacity and a stone-faced calm when met by ridicule
A love of beauty, that innate sense that treasures good writing, hates bad and knows the difference
And finally a love of self - a strength that never doubts, loves to write and bears the lonliness