“Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of
a grand army to its legendary fighting ground,
and the battle rages. Memories charge in,
bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor
deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic
rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges;
flashes of wit pop up like sharpshooters; forms and
shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink.”
– Honore de Balzac,
on writing