I had little talent for happiness.

I am still alive then. That may come in useful.

What do I know of man's destiny? I could tell you more about radishes.

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that… Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it's always the same thing. Yes, it's like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don't laugh any more.

Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me. A ton of worms in an acre, that is a wonderful thought, a ton of worms, I believe it.

There are two moments worthwhile in writing, the one when you start and the other when you throw it in the waste-paper basket.

It was long since I had longed for anything and the effect on me was horrible.