My Books
I never make them: they grow; they come to me and insist on being
written, and on being such and such. I did not want to write
Erewhon, I wanted to go on painting and found it an abominable
nuisance being dragged willy-nilly into writing it. So with all my
books--the subjects were never of my own choosing; they pressed
themselves upon me with more force than I could resist. If I had not
liked the subjects I should have kicked, and nothing would have got
me to do them at all. As I did like the subjects and the books came
and said they were to be written, I grumbled a little and wrote them.
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Great Works
These have always something of the "de profundis" about them.
New Ideas
Every new idea has something of the pain and peril of childbirth
about it; ideas are just as mortal and just as immortal as organised
beings are.
Books and Children
If the literary offspring is not to die young, almost as much trouble
must be taken with it as with the bringing up of a physical child.
Still, the physical child is the harder work of the two.
The Life of Books
Some writers think about the life of books as some savages think
about the life of men--that there are books which never die. They
all die sooner or later; but that will not hinder an author from
trying to give his book as long a life as he can get for it.
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