Total war is no longer war waged by all members of one national community against all those of another. It is total... because it may well involve the whole world.

To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June

With a little luck that epoch may arrive. I am on the side of those who think that things will go better when the world has changed.

What I ask of [the writer] is not to ignore the reality and the fundamental problems that exist. The world's hunger, the atomic threat, the alienation of man, I am astonished that they do not color all our literature.

One could only damage oneself through the harm one did to others. One could never get directly at oneself.

I think that is the big danger in keeping a diary: you exaggerate everything.

The real nature of the present revealed itself: it was what exists, all that was not present did not exist.