To those who ask if I have read their book, I reply: I have not yet read Homer.
Natalie Clifford Barneydoubt seems the only purity for those who are too fervent to deny, and too lucid to affirm.
Natalie Clifford BarneyAt first, when an idea, a poem, or the desire to write takes hold of you, work is a pleasure, a delight, and your enthusiasm knows no bounds. But later on you work with difficulty, doggedly, desperately. For once you have committed yourself to a particular work, inspiration changes its form and becomes an obsession, like a love-affair… which haunts you night and day! Once at grips with a work, we must master it completely before we can recover our idleness.
Natalie Clifford Barney