I think I've only spent about ten percent of my energies on writing. The other ninety percent went to keeping my head above water.

The very thing about people that makes the human race interesting is also the thing that makes it so hard to get anything done without the most horrible confusions: no two people think exactly the same way about anything.

If we say I love you, it may be received with doubt, for there are times when it is hard to believe. Say I hate you, and the one spoken to believes it instantly, once for all. ... Love must be learned, and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction, but waits only to be provoked.

Perhaps the habit which distinguishes civilized people from others is that of discussion, exchange of opinion and ideas, the ability to differ without quarrelling, to say what you have to say civilly and then to listen civilly to another speaker.

You shouldn't side-step suffering if you have to go through it to get where you're going.

we know that the Furies do not come uninvited.

who wants to read about success? It is the early struggle which makes a good story.