The things that one most wants to do are the things that are probably most worth doing.

When a person that one loves is in the world and alive and well, and pleased to be in the world, then to miss them is only a new flavor, a salt sharpness in experience. It is when the beloved is unhappy or maimed or troubled that one misses with pain.

The things that one most wants to do are the things that are probably most worth doing.

The only difficulty is to know what bits to choose and what to leave out. Novel-writing is not creation, it is selection.

I am fierce for work. Without work I am nothing.

But questioning does not mean the end of loving, and loving does not mean the abnegation of intelligence

You are quite, quite wrong if you think that ... I find your happiness painful. What matters is that happiness - the golden day - should exist in the world, not much to whom it comes. For all of us it is so transitory a thing, how could one not draw joy from its arrival?