Now that I don't understand.

I read and reread my stuff as I write it. I read it as if I'm the reader. I hear it in my head. Yes, I go back and see things that I wrote 20 or 40 years ago, and sometimes I see things that could really be rewritten a lot better. And sometimes, I'm totally impressed that I wrote something 60 years ago, and it is still in prime condition.

How is it possible to be a good writer and not be aware of what one's own writing sounds like?

Then again, I don't cringe - I have no emotional response to my writing. I have an intellectual one.