the death of any loved parent is an incalculable lasting blow. Because no one ever loves you again like that.

If you write, good ideas must come welling up into you so that you have something to write. If good ideas do not come at once, or for a long time, do not be troubled at all. Wait for them. Put down little ideas no matter how insignificant they are. But do not feel, any more, guilty about idleness and solitude.

Families are great murderers of the creative impulsive, particularly husbands.

Know that it is good to work. Work with love and think of liking it when you do it.

If I did not wear torn pants, orthopedic shoes, frantic disheveled hair, that is to say, if I did not tone down my beauty, people would go mad. Married men would run amuck.

it is only by expressing all that is inside that purer and purer streams come. ... Pour out the dull things on paper too-you can tear them up afterward-for only then do the bright ones come. If you hold back the dull things, you are certain to hold back what is clear and beautiful and true and lively.

We should all know this: that listening, not talking, is the gifted and great role, and the imaginative role.