The writer's only real task: to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art

If you're afraid to die, you will not be able to live.

I am certainly convinced that it is one of the greatest impulses of mankind to arrive at something higher than a natural state.

I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.

Tell me, he said, "What is this thing about time? Why is it better to be late than early? People are always saying, we must wait, we must wait. what are they waiting for?" "Well […] I guess people wait in order to make sure of what they feel." "And when you have waited—-has it made you sure?

Hatred is always self hatred, and there is something suicidal about it.

It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death-- ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us.