Whatever life may be, and whatever horror men have made of it, the world is a lovely place, a magic place, something to marvel over. The world is an amazing place.

For {she} had adopted the standard of the young: what there was in the moment was everything. And moments followed one another without necessarily belonging to one another.

That which one cannot experience in daily life is not true for oneself.

He reflected on the decay of mankind-the decline of the human race into folly and weakness and rottenness. 'Be a good animal, true to your animal instinct' was his motto.

Literary criticism can be no more than a reasoned account of the feeling produced upon the critic by the book he is criticising.

I cannot cure myself of that most woeful of youth's follies - thinking that those who care about us will care for the things that mean much to us.

Poe tried alcohol, and any drug he could lay his hands on. He also tried any human being he could lay his hands on.