If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. ››Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another. ››There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. ››The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too. ››Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready. ››You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason. ››Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt, use it - don't cheat with it. ››The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed. ››When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself. ››So far, about morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. ››Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry: Worry never fixes anything. ››It's none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way. ››Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the Romance of the unusual. ››There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span. ››There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges. ››The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing. ››
