[gmw]

In which case, Kasper, I'd suggest there is nothing special about a writer's voice.

I think many people, not just writers, have masks they wear without thinking about it. How they are at work, how they are with siblings or parents, how they are with their own family, how they are with mates at the pub ... and so on. Which are the masks, and which is real? Besides, if you consistently wear a mask in any given setting, how do you even distinguish between the mask and real person? It can be argued, I believe convincingly, that the mask is just another facet of who you really are (you are a person who wears this mask in that setting). But believing that any one facet represents a complete picture of the soul would be a mistake (but it would equally be a mistake to think that the facet says nothing at all about you).

I think there can be more definite cues about the writer in the content than in the voice. This is not completely reliable either, but after you've read enough of one writer's work you begin to find consistencies from book to book that are strongly suggestive of particular traits - political, religious and other such biases. But some authors have surprised me even here.