Writing and Musical Key

But if the act of writing cannot be controlled by the will, it can be controlled by that magical key of which I have already spoken. The key, I believe, is literally a key in that it is musical . . . it is the tone of voice, the only tone of voice, in which this particular piece of writing will permit itself to be written. Yet the unconscious, or the Muse, or whatever it is, often exacts a sacrifice from the writer before it will allow him to hit upon the right tone, the key. . . . Making It, Norman Podhoretz, 1968, pp. 139-41.