Trust me, I'm telling you stories. ... I can change the story. I am the story.

There’s no story that’s the start of itself.

I want to be an art-hero - I want to change the form of the novel.

I don't want to conquer you; I just want to climb you.

The key to happiness ... is tolerance of those who do not do as you do.

There is no greater grief than to find no happiness, but happiness in what is past.

Creative work is incredibly difficult, and that is where the tests lie. Ordinary professionalism and twenty years' experience can accomplish a lot, but it can't access the hidden places. That still needs what it always needs - a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything.