Writing Quotation

"A poem begins as a lump in the throat. A sense of wrong…,a homesickness, a lovesickness."

"Any real act of creation is first an act of destruction. Picasso said it, and it's true. We don't build on the old, we tear it down. And start fresh."

"You tear down all that's familiar, comfortable," said Gamache. "It must be scary." When the old poet was quiet he asked, "Is that the lump in the throat?"

-- Louise Penny, The Long Way Home, page 153