Every time I start on a new book, I am a beginner again. I doubt myself, I grow discouraged, all the work accomplished in the past is as though it never was, my first drafts are so shapeless that it seems impossible to go on with the attempt at all, right up until the moment - always imperceptible, there, too, there is a break - when it is has become impossible not to finish it.
Simone de BeauvoirEvery time a man dies, a child dies too, and an adolescent and a young man as well; everyone weeps for the one who was dear to him.
Simone de BeauvoirA Darwinian nation of economic fitness abhors idleness, dependence, non-productivity.
Simone de BeauvoirIndeed, there is nothing more arbitrary than intervening as a stranger in a destiny which is not ours.
Simone de Beauvoir