One reason writers write is out of revenge. Life hurts; certain ideas and experiences hurt; one wants to clarify, to set out illuminations, to replay the old bad scenes and get the Treppenworte said -- the words one didn't have the strength or ripeness to say when those words were necessary for one's dignity or survival.

One reason writers write is out of revenge.

To want to be what one can be is purpose in life.

It is true that money attracts; but much money repels.

We were born to die; we were born to endure, on the way to death, sorrow-sorrow in manifold shapes.

To be any sort of competent writer one must keep one's psychological distance from the supreme artists.

Of comic novels that have quaffed the elixir of 'classic': Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm.