This essay is based on a series of interviews with about sixty contemporary writers and is part of a larger study of the self-construction of individual authors in their relation to writing and to the various agents in the literary field. It explores two types of censorship: textual censorship (cuts, deletions, rewriting) and censorship of one’s own image (refusal of a sexualized identity, use of a pseudonym, corrected/changed date of birth). It aims at showing that, far from being a disincentive to creativity, self-censorship is always an act of self-protection and affects the writer's relationship to the reader, often stimulating creativity rather than restraining it.