If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet... [at least for your own situation. Blind optimism is just as foolish. The solution is a rigorously balanced, rational outlook.]

Each soul must accomplish its task, or it would not have been sent here.

A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.

If Moses had been paid newspaper rates for the Ten Commandments, he might have written the Two Thousand Commandments.

The pessimism of the creative person is not decadence but a mighty passion for the redemption of man.

The characters have their own lives and their own logic, and you have to act accordingly.

The waste basket is the writer's best friend.