I am very fond of the idea of writing as discovery, as a search: I suppose that is how the best essays come to mind (in fact, essay might stem from the french verb essayer, which means to try — because trying pressuposes not knowing the result.

Always finding it hard to turn down a chance to write anything – if only to find out what I did indeed think about the pair, who had suddenly swum into my stream of attention, and of course to get paid, as though writing, representing the remarkable power of the mind, still has a value, before I finally accept the inevitable and reduce myself to reviewing for Amazon (no offence) – I sadly turned off the music.