No formal course in fiction-writing can equal a close and observant perusal of the stories of Edgar Allan Poe or Ambrose Bierce.

Long suffering had nearly annihilated all my ordinary powers of mind. I was an imbecile—an idiot.

Quoth the raven nevermore.

Certain of Poe's tales possess an almost absolute perfection of artistic form which makes them veritable beacon-lights in the province of the short story.

Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stoker: A Meeting of the Macabre.

The past is a pebble in my shoe.