Yes, those who aren't writers may roll their eyes at such an observation but in my experience it's true. I often say I don't make things up; I write them down. Your quote says it well: 'when I write, I am the thing the stories come
through'. As I'm writing West Harbour I can honestly say I have absolutely no idea where it's going. It's dream-like in that sense but somewhat a lucid dream where I try to control things but can't always. Sometimes I talk to my characters and say, 'so, what are you going to do next?' As the quote states: 'I am less than myself and my characters more than me.' Finally, there's the point about writing being a fine madness: 'I don't know if I am mad or not.' My wife says my narrators are me - conflicted, vulnerable, often helpless...maybe I'm just like A. A. Attanasio: 'I've closed myself off too long with my ideas and emotions.' I told you yesterday it took 30 years to finish A Familiar Rain - what I didn't tell you was that the narrator's wife had to die and I couldn't let her. As Stephen King said, sometimes you have to kill your darlings. That's what's so damn hard because they're real people.