The form [of literature] matters little to me, classical or not.

Words are loaded pistols.

I will not be modest. Humble, as much as you like, but not modest. Modesty is the virtue of the lukewarm.

I am alone in the midst of these happy, reasonable voices. All these creatures spend their time explaining, realizing happily that they agree with each other. In Heaven's name, why is it so important to think the same things all together.

That is exactly the writer's problem. What does literature stand for in a hungry world?

It is not right, my fellow-countrymen, you who know very well all the crimes committed in our name. It's not at all right that you do not breathe a word about them to anyone, not even to your own soul, for fear of having to stand in judgment of yourself. I am willing to believe that at the beginning you did not realize what was happening; later, you doubted whether such things could be true; but now you know, and still you hold your tongues.

Acting is a question of absorbing other people's personalities and adding some of your own experience.