Under the Sign of Sontag (4-6)

4.
"Thinking, writing are ultimately questions of stamina. The melancholic, who feels he lacks will, may feel that he needs all the destructive energies he can muster." —Susan Sontag, "Under the Sign of Saturn"

5.
"The compulsive nature of his character shows plainly in his style and method, wholly apart from the violence of his diatribes and the fury of his onslaughts. He seems compelled by some irresistible urge to pile up adjectives, to accumulate synonyms, to follow every theory and describe every cure, even those he despises. He cannot let any idea go until he, it, the reader, and the language are exhausted." —B. Evans, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ROBERT BURTON

6. "...I will adventure through the midst of these perplexities, and, led by the clue or thread of the best writers, extricate myself out of a labyrinth of doubts and errors..." —Burton, THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, pt 1, sec 1, mem 3, subs 4