"His imagination conceived and bore - worlds; but nothing in these worlds became alive until he discovered its true and living name. The name was the breath of life; and, sooner or later, he invariably found it"
About this Quote
The subtext is a writers obsession rendered as cosmology. Anyone who has chased the exact word for a feeling, a character, a landscape recognizes the argument: drafts are haunted until the right name arrives. "True and living" suggests that most names are dead on arrival - approximate, decorative, fake. What brings a fictional world into motion is not more description but the moment a thing is seen clearly enough to be called correctly.
Context matters: Blackwood wrote in the heyday of weird fiction and fin-de-siecle mysticism, when language, symbolism, and psychic experience were treated as overlapping systems. His confidence - "sooner or later, he invariably found it" - reads like artistic faith, but also like compulsion. The writer isnt merely inventing; he is hunting, as if the world already exists and the name is its lock.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Blackwood, Algernon H. (2026, January 17). His imagination conceived and bore - worlds; but nothing in these worlds became alive until he discovered its true and living name. The name was the breath of life; and, sooner or later, he invariably found it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/his-imagination-conceived-and-bore-worlds-but-43827/
Chicago Style
Blackwood, Algernon H. "His imagination conceived and bore - worlds; but nothing in these worlds became alive until he discovered its true and living name. The name was the breath of life; and, sooner or later, he invariably found it." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/his-imagination-conceived-and-bore-worlds-but-43827/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"His imagination conceived and bore - worlds; but nothing in these worlds became alive until he discovered its true and living name. The name was the breath of life; and, sooner or later, he invariably found it." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/his-imagination-conceived-and-bore-worlds-but-43827/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2026.
