Life was created in the valleys. It blew up onto the hills on the old terrors, the old lusts, the old despairs. That's why you must walk up the hills so you can ride down.

I am trying to say it all in one sentence, between one cap and one period.

It's a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can't eat for eight hours; he can't drink for eight hours; he can't make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.

You should approach Joyce's Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.

It is my ambition to be, as a private individual, abolished and voided from history, leaving it markless.

My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky.

All of us have failed to match our dream of perfection. I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible. If I could write all my work again, I'm convinced I could do it better. This is the healthiest condition for an artist. That's why he keeps working, trying again: he believes each time that this time he will do it, bring it off. Of course he won't.