The art of being officially old seems to lie in cooperative submission.

I had forgotten what sleep is like - a kingdom all its own.

Their [artists'] essential effort is to catapult themselves wholly, without holding back one bit, into a course of action without having any idea where they will end up. They are like riders who gallop into the night, eagerly leaning on their horse's neck, peering into a blinding rain. And they have to do it over and over again.

the knowledge of personal failure ... is the invaluable predicate of all honest compassion.

In the range of my character at any given moment, I have acted in the only way it seemed to me I could have acted. This in no way means that I have done what was right; only what was possible for me. Sometimes I have done what I knew was wrong, and have rationalized. But rationalization is a form of desperation. It takes kindness to forgive oneself for one's life.

Generosity is often the stalking horse of control.

the capacity to work feeds on itself and has its own course of development. This is what artists have going for them.