You write by sitting down and writing. There's no particular time or place—you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he's disciplined, doesn't matter.

I write a book at least three times-once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say.

... 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.

A man is an island in the only sense that matters, not an easy way to be. We live in mystery, a cosmos of separate lonely bodies, men, insects, stars. It is all loneliness and men know it best.

... we are all terribly alone no matter what people say.

For misery don't blame God. He gives the food but we cook it.

The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly.