Perhaps; but I am a difficult person to live with. My difficulty consists in not wanting to live with other people.

My response, a dubious and hesitant one, is that it has been and may continue to be, in the time that is left to me, more productive to live out the question than to try to answer it in abstract terms.

There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather than immediately through imitation. Wordsworth is the case that comes to mind.

In order to be cruel we have to close our hearts to the suffering of the other.

Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?

A book should be an axe to chop open the frozen sea inside us.

Perhaps; but I am a difficult person to live with. My difficulty consists in not wanting to live with other people.