“A benevolent seizure, this is how the writing begins for me. A seizure and a pouncing tiger—and this in the shape of a dream. To be sustained, they demand that I pay close attention. I have come to think that memories, dreams, and the creative impulse are all gifts of Eros and come from the same wellspring. When I lose my way, I ask for a dream to un-puzzle the enigma. Who am I asking? The dream itself. (Not long ago I was delighted to learn that the music of Philip Glass is also informed by dreams and, curiously, his is the only music I can listen to while writing.)
There was a period in my life when I turned away from my dreams because they revealed a truth too terrible to mind. Soon the dreams ceased and my imagination suffered. I turned to the poets. They reminded me that words are a form that music takes. (Robert Coover once said that writing is like singing.) The dreams and their tiger returned; the darkness I had fled sparked a book.”
—Rikki Ducornet, author of Trafik (Coffee House Press, 2021)