There seemed nothing to do but live.

The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role.

The writers who have the deepest influence on one are those one reads in ones more impressionable, early life, and often it is the more youthful works of those writers that leave the deepest imprint.

I said to myself, 'If you don't sit down to it today, when will you ever sit down to it?'

The end of confession is to tell the truth to and for oneself.

For himself, then. For his idea of the world, a world in which men do not use shovels to beat corpses into a more convenient shape for processing.

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