I didn’t build my characters in advance. Sometimes when I’d finish a portion of the story, even the plot would be a surprise and a miracle to me. What I had in store were dreams, and nothing more.
“After an age of longing had we missed
Our meeting and the dream, what were the good
Of weaving cloth of words? Were jewelled tales
An opiate meet to quell the malady
Of life unlived? In untried monotone
Were not the earth as vain, and dry, and old,
For thee, O Perfect Light, had I not sought thee?”
Ezra Pound | “Canzon: The Vision”