From shit, thus, I extract pure Shinola

All the stories I would like to write persecute me. When I am in my chamber, it seems as if they are all around me, like little devils, and while one tugs at my ear, another tweaks my nose, and each says to me, 'Sir, write me, I am beautiful.

To survive, you must tell stories.

In the Middle Ages, cathedrals and convents burned like tinder; imagining a medieval story without a fire is like imagining a World War II movie in the Pacific without a fighter plane shot down in flames.

When the poet is in love, he is incapable of writing poetry on love. He has to write when he remembers that he was in love.

When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.