Quote by J.R.R. Tolkien
An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous.
Summary
This quote suggests that while authors are inevitably influenced by their experiences, understanding how those experiences shape their writing is highly complex and subjective. The quote states that trying to define this process is speculative due to insufficient and ambiguous evidence. It implies that the connection between an author's personal experiences and the creation of a story is intricate and cannot be easily explained or fully understood.