This motion-picture muddle had distracted me from my writing.

Writing was like digging coal. I sweat blood. The spell is on me.

I did not have one bad spell during writing - an unprecedented record.

What is writing but an expression of my own life?

I confess that reading proofs is a pleasure. It stimulates and inspires me.

I wrote for nearly six hours. When I stopped, the dark mood, as if by magic, had folded its cloak and gone away.