Wish I'd Written That

By Judith

"My own predilections have always been towards the Right. I like pomp, banners, divine rights, unreasonable ceremonies and ceremoniousness. It seems to me that when the world was a matter of small communities each under an arbitrary but responsible head then the world was at its best. If your community did not prosper you decapitated your chief. Till then he was possessed of divine rights. . .

"The literary man in England is usually predestined to the Left. Ranking socially with the governess and the butler - a little above it if he prospers, a little below if he is poor - he cannot, qua writer, be a gentleman. In consequence he tries to achieve importance outside his art."

- Ford Maddox Ford, Your Mirror to My Times