And yet what could be harder? For here I have already written four chapters, and still the most important characters have not appeared. What should I say to a pupil who wrote me an essay and never really began to grapple with the subject till his essay was a third done? How easily I should point out the importance of striking at once to the heart of a problem, of fixing the interest of the reader on the main topic, of concentrating upon the essential figures. How easy is criticism, how woefully difficult is construction! How now, at long last, I begin to respect the artist, be his creation never so humble! It is a humiliating confession for me, who all my life have watched and encouraged and criticized, and always with the secret thought that I could easily outshine the writers and the doers if only I cared to make the effort. And now I begin to see that it is not just fastidiousness, not even just idleness which has restrained me, but a lack, a miserable lack, of creative energy and artistic power.
