In this beautifully written, eloquent piece, David Malouf explores the connections between writing and the imagination and offers wonderful insights into his own experiences of the writer's life.

MUP's new series Little Books on Big Themes pairs leading Australian thinkers and cultural figures with some of the big themes in life: rage, experience, longing and ecstasy. Each author's 10,000-word take on a chosen theme is presented as an eminently collectable hardback.