I have been surprised at the observations made by some of my characters. It seems as if an occult Power was moving the pen. The personage does or says something, and I ask, how the dickens did he come to think of that? 

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) English novelist

(Attributed)

In A. Storr, Solitude: A Return to the Self, ch. 12 (1988)