The Question I Get Asked Most Often

Note in The Wave in the Mind: "This was a talk, first given for Portland Arts and Lectures in October 2000, then for Seattle Arts and Lectures in April 2002. I have revised it slightly for publication. It has not been published before, though bits of it can be found in my book Steering the Craft and elsewhere in my writings about writing. As a talk, it was called 'Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?'—but in my previous collection of talks and essays, The Language of the Night, there's a different essay with that title (there being many answers to the question). So I have retitled it."