In company with people of your own trade you ordinarily speak of other writers' books. The better the writers the less they will speak about what they have written themselves. Joyce was a very great writer and he would only explain what he was doing to jerks. Other writers that he respected were supposed to be able to know what he was doing by reading it.
Ernest Hemingway: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations (ed. Melville House, 2015) - ISBN: 9781612195230