But this is a fundamental difference between art and content. The art exists without you, and it has to stand up for itself. You cannot follow it around explaining why you did the things you did, or apologizing for it, or even speaking for it, because it is separate from you and it is finished. A book exists forever on its own, and even by the time it is published you will have changed as a person and a writer and a thinker. The book is, hopefully, no longer the best you can do.
[Via]