Gollum was Tolkein

Random thoughts - It just occurred to me that Tolkein is represented in the Lord Of the Rings as the character Gollum. Now, Tolkein himself said in an interview somewhere (I don't have the exact reference) that he felt that Faramir most represented him. Faramir, of course, is what everyone would like to be - heroic, educated, noble, blah, blah, blah. But as I was walking at lunch I remember a line from the Hobbit or LOTR, can't remember, where Gollum is described as someone who was obsessed with seeking out the roots of things. That's how he found himself at the bottom of the Misty Mountains. Also, he was singularly obsessive, more so than any other character in the book, over the ring. Now, before you say "well all the characters were obsessed with the ring", all the other character's obsession was to the ring as a means to something else - power, salvation, etc. Gollum wanted nothing but the ring. Now compare to Tolkein - his early career was finding the 'roots' of words - I think he could take at least 3 weeks to research a single word. He invented languages it seems to explore the roots and beginnings of words. And his obsession with the Simillarion (never published in his lifetime despite working on it for the better parts of 60 years) mirrors that of Gollum. I don't know, just my thought of the day: Most of us want to be Faramirs, a lot of us are Gollums instead.