My New Fave Quote

My fave new quote is actually an old one--from Cato, written by Joseph Addison in 1713. I love quotes from classic literature and have kept a notebook of them since I was 22 years old. Somehow I missed this one. On the other hand--this one wouldn't have become significant to me until I embarked on this crazy suspense-writing career of mine.

Now tell me if this quote ain't just perfect for me:

O think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods.
Oh! Tis a dreadful interval of time,
Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death!

What with all the cabinet-kicking and anxious moments that pass between my birth of a plot and typing its final sentence, I can attest that it's a "dreadful interval of time." And--as my stories would have it-- "big with death" to some of my characters ... and often nearly to this poor author as well.

Fact is, these lines in the play aren't really about some novelist trying to write. The plot here refers to the plans to overthrow Cato,  a Roman statesman who took sides with Pompey in his unsuccessful civil war against Julius Caesar. But I shall happily quote out of context.
 
And yes, these days I'm in that "dreadful interval of time," writing my next book, which is due at the end of January.
 
Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death!...