“There must be a resemblance, which does not depend upon their own will, between al the writers of any particular age. They cannot escape from subjection to a common influence which arises out of an infinite combination of circumstances belonging to the times in which they live; though each is in a degree the author of the very influence by which his being is thus pervaded.”

– Percy Bysshe Shelley (from his introduction to Laon and Cynthia)