« There are, so far as I know, three ways, and three ways only, of writing a story. You may take a plot and fit character to it, or you may take a character and choose incidents and situations to develop it, or lastly [...] you may take a certain atmosphere and get action and persons to express and realise it. I'll give you an example The Merry Men. There I began with the feeling of one of those islands on the west coast of Scotland, and I gradually developed the story to express the sentiment with which that coast affected me. » in Graham Balfour, The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, London Methuen, (lire en ligne), p. 257
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(en) R. L. Stevenson, Memories and Portraits, (lire en ligne), chap. VIII (« Memoirs of an Islet »), traduit en français dans À travers l'Écosse, « Souvenirs d'un îlot »
(en) R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, Cassell and Company Ltd, (lire en ligne), chap. XIV (« The Islet ») : naufragé, David y passera trois jours avant de s'apercevoir que le Ross de l'île de Mull peut être franchi à pied à marée basse.
