Show me a person who has nothing to hide, and I'll show you a person who is either exceedingly dull - or a complete exhibitionist
Dialogue's a method of revelation, of course. A few words of dialogue can reveal worlds about a character.
To write? Because all this is going to vanish. The only thing left will be the prose and poems, the books, what is written down. Man was very fortunate to have invented the book. Without it the past would completely vanish, and we would be left with nothing, we would be naked on earth.
There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real.
Love must wait; it must break one’s bones.
In the war time many of the publishing houses were privately owned, a single publisher or a publisher and a few associates who were responsible for everything. They could take whatever risks they wanted, could essentially publish what they liked according to their taste. Publishers today are working for big corporations. They have different pressures. I don't think they can make decisions quite as independently as they used to be able to. They have more corporate and financial responsibilities weighing on them. They're not free to go broke or go to jail.
Certain things I remember exactly as they were. They are merely discolored a bit by time, like coins in the pocket of a forgotten suit. Most of the details, though, have long since been transformed or rearranged to bring others of them forward. Some, in fact, are obviously counterfeit; they are no less important. One alters the past to form the future.
What you meditate on is what you believe.
If AIG had tried to unwind their derivatives books. I don't know. It would have hit every institution in the world.
It is right for you, young men, to enrich yourselves with the spoils of all pure literature; but he who would make a favorite of a bad book, simply because it contains a few beautiful passages, might as well caress the hand of an assassin because of the jewelry which sparkles on his fingers.
If I had to advise parents, I should tell them to take great care about the people with whom their children associate. . . Much harm may result from bad company, and we are inclined by nature to follow what is worse than what is better.