"Time spent carefully creating the atmosphere in which a work of art must move is never wasted. As I see it, one must never be in a hurry to write things down. One must allow the complex play of ideas free rein: how it works is a mystery and we too often interfere with it by being impatient- which comes from being too materialistic, even cowardly, although we don't like to admit it."

Debussy, in a letter to Raoul Bardac, Saturday, 31 August, 1901 (*Debussy Letters*, 1987)