We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.

A writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid.

A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune

I don't care much for facts, am not much interested in them, you can't stand a fact up, you've got to prop it up, and when you move to one side a little and look at it from that angle, it's not thick enough to cast a shadow in that direction.

Did you ever have a sister? did you?

She was the captain of her soul

...I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire...I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.