Marilynne Robinson and J. M. Barrie on Angels in Literary Creativity: That which finally gets written goes beyond what writer’s regular self had intended.

Marilynne Robinson

“Writing should always be exploratory. There shouldn’t be the assumption that you know ahead of time what you want to express. When you enter into the dance with language, you’ll begin to find that there’s something before, or behind, or more absolute than the thing you thought you wanted to express. And as you work, other kinds of meaning emerge than what you might have expected. It’s like wrestling with the angel: On the one hand you feel the constraints of what can be said, but on the other hand you feel the infinite potential. There’s nothing more interesting than language and the problem of trying to bend it to your will, which you can never quite do. You can only find what it contains, which is always a surprise” (1).

J. M. Barrie

“My special difficulty is that though you have had literary rectors here before…you have had none, I think, who followed my more humble branch, which may be described as playing hide and seek with angels. My puppets seem more real to me than myself, and I could get on much more swingingly if I made one of them deliver this address. It is M'Connachie who has brought me to this pass. M'Connachie, I should explain, as I have undertaken to open the innermost doors, is the name I give to the unruly half of myself: the writing half…M'Connachie is the one who writes the plays…When I look in a mirror now it is his face I see. I speak with his voice…He has clung to me, less from mischief than for companionship…” (2).

1. Marilynne Robinson. “Marilynne Robinson on Finding the Right Word.” New York Times, Sept. 22, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/books/review/marilynne-robinson-on-finding-the-right-word.html?mcubz=0

2. J. M. Barrie. “Courage,” The Rectorial Address at St. Andrew’s University, May 3, 1922. http://www.freeclassicebooks.com/James%20M%20Barrie/Courage.pdf