What are the sources of an illumination? To me, they come after hours of searching and keeping my soul ready. Yet they come in a flash, as a religious phenomenon. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter had such an illumination, beginning my long search for the truth of the story and flashing light into the long two years ahead.
Illumination and night glare: the unfinished autobiography of Carson McCullers (ed. Univ of Wisconsin Pr, 2001)