J.R.R. Tolkien on How He Wrote His Books

As we let go of the desire to dominate, our inner stillness suddenly transmutes into “hearing.”

The creator of the world-famous fantasy legendarium, J.R.R. Tolkien, said that he never invented any of the events in The Lord of the Rings:

“I have long ceased to invent… I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself.”

What does it mean?

Leo Tolstoy noticed a similar paradox when writing Anna Karenina. He confessed that he neve…