“Where did the poem ‘Surge’ come from? A thought happens to the mind, and it becomes a line of poetry. Why this and not other thoughts, we'll never know; let's keep mysteries a mystery. But that line has a particular rhythm, an original one, and an energy, an enormous one, that pushes us ahead. We usually don't know where we're going, that's why we keep going. That first line is similar to the currents of air that birds find and follow. They sail on that particular current, they follow its course, they trust it, and go. So this is how you find yourself engaged in a new adventure, a spiritual journey, a search if you want, where what you search is not already there, but established as you go along.”
—Etel Adnan