When I don't feel hurt, I hope they bury me.

The short story packs a self in a few pages predicating a lifetime

Nationality isn't soul.

Completed, most lives were alike in stages of living-joys, celebrations, crises, illusions, losses, sorrows.

... it's possible to let love fly by like a cloud in a windy sky if one is too timid, or perhaps unable to believe he is entitled to good fortune.

You could not pity anything if you weren't a man; pity was a surprise to God. It was not his invention.

To any writer: Teach yourself to work in uncertainty. Many writers are anxious when they begin, or try something new. Even Matisse painted some of his Fauvist pictures in anxiety. Maybe that helped him to simplify. Character, discipline, negative capability count. Write, complete, revise. If it doesn't work, begin something else.