Borrowed illusions are better than none.

To mourn was distressing, but to endeavor to mourn and fail was worse than distress.

Life has taught me that the greatest tragedy is not to die too soon but to live too long.

No one in the modern world is more lonely than the writer with a literary conscience.

. . . this rage - I have never forgotten it - contained every anger, every revolt I had ever felt in my life - the way I felt when I saw the black dog hunted, the way I felt when I watched old Uncle Henry taken away to the almshouse, the way I felt whenever I had seen people or animals hurt for the pleasure or profit of others.

The truth is I've got the land on my back, an' it's drivin' me. Land is a hard driver.

Of one thing alone I am very sure: it is a law of our nature that the memory of longing should survive the more fugitive memory of fulfillment.