Luxury is the wolf at the door and its fangs are the vanities and conceits germinated by success. When an artist learns this, he knows where the danger is.
Once you fully apprehend the vacuity of a life without struggle, you are equipped with the basic means of salvation.
I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.
We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.
What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains.
Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead.
Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense.