Israel Zangwill The Penalties of Fame

Taken from the article "The Penalties of Fame" from the 1896 compilation Without Prejudice by the novelist, playwright, and humorist Israel Zangwill (1864-1926):

The conductor of a penny journal, not unconnected with literary tit-bits, honoured me with a triple interrogatory.  This professional Rosa Dartle wanted to know –

(1) The condition under which your write your novels.

(2) How you get your plots and characters.

(3) How you find your titles.

I was very busy.  I was very modest.  But the accompanying assurance that an anxious world was on the qui vive for the information appealed to my higher self, and I took up my pen and wrote: –

(1) The conditions under which I write my novels can be better imagined than described.

(2) My plots and characters I get from the MSS. submitted to me by young authors, whose clever but crude ideas I hate to see wasted.  I always read everything sent to me, and would advise young authors to encourage younger authors to send them their efforts.

(3) As for my titles, they are the only things I work out for myself, and you will therefore excuse me if I preserve a measure of reticence as to the method by which I get them.