Nationality isn't soul.

Prufrock had measured out his life with measuring spoons; Dubin, in books resurrecting the lives of others.

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

Without heroes, we are all plain people and don't know how far we can go.

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.

Reader, I am myself the subject of my book; you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and so vain a matter.

The wild begins where you least expect it, one step off your normal course