The Past Is Never Where

There Have Been Many Times When I Have Been So Entirely Sickened Of Life It Was Very Hard To Work To Keep On, A Half Dozen Times I Have Been Tempted To Suicide, But I Am Glad I Did Not Give Way, For I Have Always Felt That The Last Half Of My Life Would Somehow Atone For The First Half, And I Still Think It May ... It Is Not Possible To Live In This World Without Suffering Unless One Is A Born Stone. But It Is Also Possible To Have A Great Deal Of Happiness In Spite Of The Suffering.

A Story Is Like Something You Wind Out Of Yourself. Like A Spider, It Is A Web You Weave, And You Love Your Story Like A Child.

All Life Worth Living Is Difficult, Nobody Promised Us Happiness; It Is Not A Commodity You Have Earned, Or Shall Ever Earn. It Is A By-product Of Brave Living, And It Never Comes In The Form We Expect, Or At The Season We Hoped For, Or As The Result Of Our Planning For It.

[on Gertrude Stein's Making Of Americans:] I Doubt If All The People Who Should Read It Will Read It For A Great While Yet, For It Is In Such A Limited Edition, And Reading It Is Anyhow A Sort Of Permanent Occupation.

Most People Won't Realise That Writing Is A Craft. You Have To Take Your Apprenticeship In It Like Anything Else.