Duty should be a byproduct.

You Do Not Know Is in You— an Inexhaustible Fountain of Ideas. Another reason for writing a diary is to discover that the ideas in you are an inexhaustible fountain.

Of course, in fairness, I must remind you of this: that we writers are the most lily-livered of all craftsmen. We expect more, for the most peewee efforts, than any other people.

Write a true, careless, slovenly impulsive, honest diary every day of your life.

It is so conceited and timid to be ashamed of one's mistakes. Of course they are mistakes. Go on to the next.

The only good teachers for you are those friends who love you, who think you are interesting, or very important, or wonderfully funny.

Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be.