The worst thing: to give yourself away in exchange for not enough love.
Writing! The activity for which the only adequate bribe is the possibility of suicide, one day.
We are all regionalists in our origins, however 'universal' our themes and characters, and without our cherished hometowns and childhood landscapes to nourish us, we would be like plants set in shallow soil. Our souls must take root - almost literally.
Never be ashamed of your subject, and of your passion for your subject.
Every scar in my face is worth it.
And this is the forbidden truth, the unspeakable taboo - that evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices.