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Thanks to words we have been able to rise above the brutes and thanks to words we have often sunk to the level of the demons.

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Words, words, words! They shut one off from the universe. Three quarters of the time one’s never in contact with things, only with the beastly words t...more

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Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.

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Writers write to influence their readers their preachers their auditors but always at bottom to be more themselves.

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I believe one would write better if the climate were bad. If there were a lot of wind and storms for example...

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Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.

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Disappointed in his hope that I would give him the fictional equivalent of “One Hundred Ways of Cooking Eggs” or the “Carnet de la Ménagère,” he began...more

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What a gulf between impression and expression! That’s our ironic fate—to have Shakespearean feelings and (unless by some billion-to-one chance we happ...more