So stories are perfect for a Romantic kind of optimist/pessimist like I am, fascinated by the transient.
Ali Smith
I am terrified about starting a novel. I feel like throwing up every time I think of it. I want to start it so badly that it is nearly killing me. I have been writing page after page in my head. I know so clearly what I want to do – all I don’t know is how to do it. Everything is so complex.
Margaret Laurence, A Letter to Adele Wiseman, 2 May, 1967
