Stale, forgotten ideas are the raw material that germinates new writing

Evidence

These books are seldom found in a modern bookshop among the three-for-twos. Lost notions, forlorn phrases, time-worn ruminations, the received ideas and commonplaces of earlier times: these are what start new ideas growing. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 965

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with how Mantel elsewhere describes historical detritus feeding fiction; connects to her noted practice of mining old phrases and commonplaces. — connects to: Writers can treat unfinished drafts as pending work rather than failures. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 65; Writers unfreeze antique feeling stored in physical objects of history — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1148
• SEED: Angle for an essay on where ideas actually come from: not novelty but forlorn leftovers and superstitions.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 965