...at last I understood that writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had.

There is that American pastime known as "kidding" - with the result that everyone is ashamed and hangdog about showing the slightest enthusiasm or passion or sincere feeling about anything.

Inspiration comes to us slowly and quietly . prime it with a little solitude.

And the true listener is much more beloved, magnetic than the talker, and he is more effective and learns more and does more good

Your motto: Be Bold, Be Free, Be Truthful.

Everyone knows how people who laugh easily create us by their laughter,--making us think of funnier and funnier things.

Unless you listen, people are weazened in your presence; they become about a third of themselves. Unless you listen, you can't know anybody. Oh, you will know facts and what is in the newspapers and all of history, perhaps, but you will not know one single person. You know, I have come to think listening is love, that's what it really is.