Commonplace Book

'O but i have begun - it's Old Age! - yes, I have begun - & in "my writings" as well as letters - to digress & forget to reach the Point! Do you ever do that? You see, my dear, all (without any exception) of the talent, gift, eloquence, insight, clairvoyance I possess is always digression - never anything else. But of course I do painfully, laboriously, lengthily build up (I speak of both my tracts and my long romances) a sort of foundation, and on top of that a sort of scaffolding, both very simple - including all the Main Characters & where they live, or all the main theses, propositions & contentions & where they end! Then I let the chance moment have its way - have its way with the characters, have its way with the ideas! In both cases I am absolutely irresponsible & unscrupulous &, at the best, Mediumistic, and at the worst both silly and dull!'

from a letter dated October 5, 1944 in Letters to Louis Wilkinson 1935-1956 by John Cowper Powys