Only those who still have hope can benefit from tears.

Feeling is of the heart and nerves and the crudeness of its expression has nothing to do with its intensity.

At college, and perhaps for a year afterwards, they had believed in literature, had believed in Beauty and in personal expression as an absolute end. When they lost this belief, they lost everything.

Only those who still have hope can benefit from tears. When they finish, they feel better. But to those without hope, whose anguish is basic and permanent, no good comes from crying. Nothing changes for them. They usually know this, but still can’t help crying.

He thought of how calm he was. His calm was so perfect that he could not destroy it even by being conscious of it.

He read it for the same reason an animal tears at a wounded foot: to hurt the pain.

No dream ever entirely disappears. Somewhere it troubles some unfortunate person and some day, when that person has been sufficiently troubled, it will be reproduced on the lot.