Time is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people. There is no such thing as was - only is.

Just when do men that have different blood in them stop hating one another?

History is not was, it is.

I say money has no value; it's just the way you spend it.

Well, Bud," he said, looking at me, "I'll be damned if you don't go to a lot of trouble to have your fun. Kidnapping, then fighting. What do you do on your holidays? Burn houses?

...It seems hard that a man in his need could be so flouted by a road.

The artist is of no importance. Only what he creates is important, since there is nothing new to be said. Shakespeare, Balzac, Homer have all written about the same things, and if they had lived one thousand or two thousand years longer, the publishers wouldn't have needed anyone since.