“I have been thinking all day what I could do or write. Perhaps there is something if I could only think of it. Unfortunately, I have very little imagination.”

The self-deprecating claim is strikingly at odds with Joyce’s reputation for extraordinary imaginative invention. · Letter to Ezra Pound, 1917

• Humility
• Imagination
• Writing

“Perhaps my idea will appear clearer to you when you have the text.”

Joyce acknowledges the difficulty of explaining an experimental work through abstract description alone. · Letter to Carlo Linati, 1920

• Communication
• Understanding
• Writing

“I also want all the information you can give, tittletattle, facts etc about Holles Street maternity hospital.”

The playful phrase captures Joyce’s appetite for both gossip and factual detail in constructing Ulysses. · Letter to his aunt Josephine Murray, February 1920

• Attention
• Knowledge
• Writing