The writer, like a swimmer caught by an undertow, is borne in an unexpected direction. He is carried to a subject which has awaited him--a subject sometimes no part of his conscious plan. Reality, the reality of sensation, has accumulated where it was least sought. To write is to be captured--captured by some experience to which one may have given hardly a thought.
Elizabeth BowenEverything is very quiet, the streets are never crowded, and the people one dislikes are out of town.
Elizabeth BowenThere's something so showy about desperation, it takes hard wits to see it's a grandiose form of funk.
Elizabeth BowenAfter inside upheavals, it is important to fix on imperturbable things. Their imperturbableness, their air that nothing has happened renews our guarantee.
Elizabeth Bowen