“The public has no idea that writing is a disease, and that the writer who publishes is like a beggar who exhibits his sores.”

“The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax.”

“Opinion, O disciples, is a disease; opinion is a tumour; opinion is a sore. He who has overcome all opinion, O disciples, is called a saint, one who knows.”

“Nathaniel, who has failed as a writer, decides to commit suicide. He loads his revolver, places it at his side on his desk, and starts to write his letter of farewell. The letter lengthens, brightens, breathes, lives. It is the Masterpiece, the yearned-for Masterpiece! In order to publish it, Nathaniel does not commit suicide.”

“I believe that a writer is a person who writes. An author is a person who has written.”

“An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.”