Energy in itself is a sort of redemption. No wonder we admire Satan. But if the Devil were listless, if he were a pale man in his underwear who watched television by day behind closed venetian blinds - oh if that were the devil I would fear him.

Hell is God's Absence.

I saw literature as a fantasy, no less absorbing for all its irrelevance - a parallel life, as dreams shadow waking but never intersect it.

As a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excuse me or assure me I wasn't the only one, that might confirm an identity I was unhappily piecing together

Paris... is a world meant for the walker alone, for only the pace of strolling can take in all the rich (if muted) detail.

I think sincerity was my sole aesthetic and realism my experimental technique.

These rejections hurt me terribly because I felt it was my life that was being rejected.