[...] At present I am still deep in my work on Opera and Drama. As I wrote to you, it is of the greatest importance to me, and I hope it will not seem unimportant to others. But it is going to be a big fat book.—Oh, if it were only spring and I could at last be a full-blooded creative musician again! Things are not at their best with me at present. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 194