Before we take to the sea, we walk on land. . . Before we create, we must understand. . .

And who understands? Not me, because if I did I would forgive it all.

Only one marriage I regret. I remember after I got that marriage license I went across from the license bureau to a bar for a drink. The bartender said, "What will you have, sir?" And I said, "A glass of hemlock."

A wine shop was open and I went in for some coffee. It smelled of early morning, of swept dust, spoons in coffee-glasses and the wet circles left by wine glasses.

The world breaks everyone or nearly everyone, of their childish illusions, assumptions and wishes, often painfully and afterwards due to the personal growth in practical experience, insight and the resulting wisdom many are strong at the broken places just like mended broken bones often are, and some people even have the great insight to be grateful for the purifying fire.

A writer without a sense of justice or injustice would be better off editing the yearbook for a school for exceptional children.

I do not know what I thought Paris would be like, but it was not that way. It rained nearly every day.