Writer's Wednesday - Ludwig van Beethoven

I carry my thoughts about with me for a long time... before writing them down... once I have grasped a theme. I shall not forget it even years later. I change many things, discard others, and try again and again until I am satisfied; then, in my head... [the work] rises, it grows, I hear and see the image in front of me from every angle... and only the labor of writing it down remains... I turn my ideas into tones that resound, roar, and rage until at last they stand before me in the form of notes.

---Ludwig van Beethoven, composer

from Notations -- Quotations on Music.

Edited by Sallye Leventhal, Barnes and Noble Books, 2003.