Talent is that which is in a man’s power; genius is that in whose power a man is.

What you can direct and what directs you are two different things. A skill you own can be turned on at will, used for whatever purpose, and set down again. The other thing, the preoccupation you did not choose and cannot quite put away, uses you rather than the reverse, and it is often where the best work comes from and also where the trouble is.

Notice what you return to when nobody is asking anything of you. Instead of treating it as a distraction from your real work, give it two hours this week and see what it does with them.