“You are as good as anybody and better than most”

“I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and i can write faster than anybody who can write better.”

“I don't believe that I'm better than anybody, but I do believe that I'll try harder than most and I hope that people just join me for a little bit of a ride.”

“How can you see better of a dark night than anybody else, never mind how foolish?”

“For two extraordinary years I have been working on it - learning to write - but mostly learning how to tell the truth. At first it is quite impossible. You make yourself better than anybody, then worse than anybody, and when you finally come to see you are 'like' everybody - that is the bitterest blow of all to the ego. But in the end it is only the truth, no matter how ugly or shameful, that is right, that fits together, that makes real people, and strangely enough - beauty...”

“Better than nothing is not good enough for you!”