All serious writers want the obvious rewards: fame, money, women, love -- and most of all, an audience!

Shakespeare wrote great poetry and preposterous plays. Who really cares, for example, which petty tyrant rules Milan? Or who succeeds to the throne of Denmark? Or why the barons ganged up on Richard II?

Lightning streaks like gunfire through the clouds, volleys of thunder shake the air.

In marriage, the occasional catastrophic crisis is easier to manage than the daily routine.

When the situation is desperate, it is too late to be serious. Be playful.

Indolence and melancholy: Each generates the other. If one can speak of such feeble passions as generating anything.

The world exists for its own sake, not for ours. Swallow *that* pill!