“They came, and I wrote them, that’s all.”

Describing the spontaneous arrival of his lines without elaborate method · Remark on the composition of The Black Riders (to friends)

• Creativity
• Poetry
• Spontaneity

“It seems a pity that this should be so—that art should be a child of suffering; and yet such seems to be the case.”

Observing that hardship can sharpen literary work · Letter, written in England (published 1900)

• Art
• Creativity
• Suffering