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

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.

... to paint with oil paints for the first time ... is like trying to make something exquisitely accurate and microscopically clear out of mud pies with boxing gloves on.

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

You have to hold your audience in writing to the very end-much more than in talking, when people have to be polite and listen to you.

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

The only good teachers for you are those friends who love you, who think you are interesting, or very important, or wonderfully funny; whose attitude is: "Tell me more. Tell me all you can. I want to understand more about everything you feel and know and all the changes inside and out of you. Let more come out." And if you have no such friend,--and you want to write,--well, then you must imagine one.