“Nothing matters but the writing. There has been nothing else worthwhile... a stain upon the silence”

“All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

“Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.”

“There are two moments worthwhile in writing, the one when you start and the other when you throw it in the waste-paper basket.”

“But even them, my pains, I understand ill. That must come from my not being all pain and nothing else. There's the rub. Then they recede, or I, till they fill me with amaze and wonder, seen from a better planet. Not often, but I ask no more. Catch-cony life! To be nothing but pain, how that would simplify matters! Omnidolent! Impious dream.”

“Art has nothing to do with clarity, does not dabble in the clear and does not make clear”

“Silence, yes, but what silence! For it is all very fine to keep silence, but one has also to consider the kind of silence one keeps.”