And when you get an eminent journal like Time magazine complaining, as it often has, that to the young writers of today life seems short on rewards and that what they write is a product of their own neuroses, in its silly way the magazine is merely stating the status quo and obvious truth. The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads.
William StyronI get a fine warm feeling when I'm doing well, but that pleasure is pretty much negated by the pain of getting started each day. Let's face it, writing is hell.
William StyronWhat I really mean is that a great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.
William StyronMany of the artifacts of my house had become potential devices for my own destruction: the attic rafters (and an outside maple or two) a means to hang myself, the garage a place to inhale carbon monoxide, the bathtub a vessel to receive the flow from my opened arteries. The kitchen knives in their drawers had but one purpose for me.
William StyronA disruption of the circadian cycleโthe metabolic and glandular rhythms that are central to our workaday lifeโseems to be involved in many, if not most, cases of depression; this is why brutal insomnia so often occurs and is most likely why each dayโs pattern of distress exhibits fairly predictable alternating periods of intensity and relief.
William Styron