“My hand is very tired but I want to go on writing. I keep resting and thinking. All day I have been two people - the me imprisoned in yesterday and the me out here on the mound; and now there is a third me trying to get in - the me in what is going to happen next.”

“I have really sinned. I am going to pause now, and sit here on the mound repenting in deepest shame...”

“While I have been writing I have lived in the past, the light of it has been all around me...”

“Perhaps if I make myself write I shall find out what is wrong with me.”

“He laughed a little, in an odd, nervous kind of way. "Because if I don't get going soon, the whole impetus may die--and if that happens, well, I really shall consider a long, restful plunge into insanity. Sometimes the abyss yawns very attractively.”

“Feeling like what, Cassandra Mortmain? Flat? Depressed? Empty? If so, why, pray?I thought if I made myself write I should find out what is wrong with me, but I haven't, so far. Unless — could I possibly be jealous of Rose?I will pause and search my innermost soul . . .I have searched it for a solid five minutes. And I swear I am not jealous of Rose; [..]”

“I am surprised to see how much I have written; with stories even a page can take me hours, but the truth seems to flow out as fast as I can get it down.”