"I must be getting old."

I have found out, during almost thirty years of writing, that the best characters are the ones who simply walk, unplanned, into a story, and take it over. I suppose the real explanation is that they represent the spontaneous creativity of the subconscious mind, which is less labored than the conscious mind ... I must be getting old. I am tired of logical explanations. ... I prefer to think that Damon exists somewhere and demanded to be written about.

. -- Marion Zimmer Bradley, "Darkover Retrospective" (1980).