[E]very plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its dรฉnouement before anything be attempted with the pen. It is only with the dรฉnouement constantly in view that we can plot its indispensable air of consequence, or causation, by making the incidents, and especially the tone at all points tend to the development of the intention.
Edgar Allan PoeWe allude to the short prose narrative, requiring from a half hour to one or two hours in its perusal
Edgar Allan PoeYou will observe that the stories told are all about money-seekers, not about money-finders.
Edgar Allan PoeI am SHADOW, and my dwelling is near to the Catacombs of Ptolemais, and hard by those dim plains of Helusion which border upon the foul Charonian canal." And then did we, the seven, start from our seats in horror, and stand trembling, and shuddering, and aghast, for the tones in the voice of the shadow were not the tones of any one being, but of a multitude of beings, and, varying in their cadences from syllable to syllable fell duskly upon our ears in the well-remembered and familiar accents of many thousand departed friends.
Edgar Allan PoeThy soul shall find itself alone โMid dark thoughts of the gray tombstoneโ Not one, of all the crowd, to pry Into thine hour of secrecy. Be silent in that solitude, Which is not lonelinessโfor then The spirits of the dead who stood In life before thee are again In death around theeโand their will Shall overshadow thee: be still. [...]
Edgar Allan Poe