There is nothing you can do except try to write it the way that it was. So you must write each day better than you possibly can and use the sorrow that you have now to make you know how the early sorrow came. And you must always remember the things you believed because if you know them they will be there in the writing and you won’t betray them. The writing is the only progress you make.

Don't you like to write letters? I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something.

Don't you drink? I notice you speak slightingly of the bottle. I have drunk since I was fifteen and few things have given me more pleasure.

Anyone who says he wants to be a writer and isn't writing, doesn't.

I have watched them all day and they are the same men that we are. I believe that I could walk up to the mill and knock on the door and I would be welcome except that they have orders to challenge all travelers and ask to see their papers. It is only orders that come between us. Those men are not fascists. I call them so, but they are not. They are poor men as we are. They should never be fighting against us and I do not like to think of the killing.

Fish," he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.

Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.