I like shape very much. A novel has to have shape, and life doesn't have any.

I found when I was a child that if I put the hurt into words, it would go.

I must write. If I stop writing my life will have been an abject failure. It is that already to other people. But it could be an abject failure to myself. I will not have earned death.

I took the red dress down and put it against myself. 'Does it make me look intemperate and unchaste?' I said.

Even the one moment that you thought was your eternity fades out and is forgotten and dies.

Cold - cold as truth, cold as life. No, nothing can be as cold as life.

When I think about it, if I had to choose, I'd rather be happy than write.