Language must possess all the scales of music. The writer must always, unfailingly, use a word that pulsates, that conveys a thing, that can wound the soul so it yelps. A writer must sense the hidden power of words, give his language sudden effects. It should have a hectic, tormented energy that rushes through one like a wind, it should possess hidden intoxicating tenderness that nestles into the senses, it should be raucous like a sailor’s song in a storm, or sigh with the intensity of a person overcome with tears.
—Knut Hamsun
