Is love supposed to ruin you? It seems to me you shouldn't destroy yourself out of life for purposes of love--or what good is it?

There are times when the most practical thing is to lie down.

Unless you're completely exploded, there's always something to be grateful for.

Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.

With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence.

And I said to myself that unless you conceive Death to be a violent guerrilla and kidnaper who snatches those you love, and if you are not cowardly and cannot submit to such terrorism as civilized people now do in every department of life, you must pursue and inquire and explore every possibility and seek everywhere and try everything.

... unless you made your life a turning point, there was no reason for existing.