He had shown me how to write. He had taught me to find the courage to climb down into myself. The unconscious is full of darkness, Oedipal stand-ins, broken legends, half-told tales. A shaky ladder with rotten rungs descends into it. Another golden ladder may take you to the stars but first you must find yourself in the dark.
If you don't know yourself, how can you find anything?'

Erica Jong
from, Fear of Fifty