Mary Oliver, editor of the Best American Essays 2009, asks the question, “What is an essay?” In her answer she quotes Michel de Montaigne, who popularized the essay as a literary genre:

The world always looks straight ahead; as for me, I turn my gaze inward. I fix it there and keep it busy. Everyone looks in front of him; as for me, I look inside of me; I have no business but with myself; I continually observe myself, I take stock of myself, I taste myself; Others always go elsewhere, if they stop to think about it; they always go forward…As for me, I roll about in myself.

–From the Complete Works, translated by Donald M. Frame.