We must travel in the direction of our fear.

These Songs are not meant to be understood, you understand. They are only meant to terrify & comfort.

That is our ‘pointed task. Love & die.

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.

So if I were talking to a young writer, I would recommend the cultivation of extreme indifference to both praise and blame because praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns, we ourselves flash and yearn, and moreover my mother told me as a boy (repeatedly) 'Ever to confess you're bored means you have no inner Resources.' I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored.

One must be ruthless with one's own writing or someone else will be.