“I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved, which a cow enjoys on giving milk.”

“Writing like this is a little like milking a cow: the milk is so rich and delicious, and the cow is so glad you did it.”

“I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.”

“Alice heard a woman say, 'Before I start writing I feel affectionate, interested, and frustrated. In that order. Afterwards I feel relieved, disgusted, and confused. Sometimes I don't think it's worth it.”

“The human body has no more need for cows' milk than it does for dogs' milk, horses' milk, or giraffes' milk.”

“And more even than the painter, the writer, in order to achieve volume and substance, in order to attain to generality and, so far as literature can, to reality, needs to have seen many churches in order to paint one church and for the portrayal of a single sentiment requires many individuals. For if art is long and life is short, we may on the other hand say that, if inspiration is short, the sentiments which it has to portray are not of much longer duration. It is our passions which draw the outline of our books, the ensuing intervals of repose which write them.”