“We are all in “the perpetual quest for keeping oneself occupied, entertained, and important—which burns at the edge of addiction.”

“True or false, that which is said of men often occupies as important a place in their lives, and above all in their destinies, as that which they do.”

“Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying.”

“Much of living is an attempt to preserve oneself by annexing and occupying others.”

“Most of us do not take these situations as teachings. We automatically hate them. We run like crazy. We use all kinds of ways to escape -- all addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just can't stand it. We feel we have to soften it, pad it with something, and we become addicted to whatever it is that seems to ease the pain.”

“The one way of tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy.”