“The artist secretes nostalgia round life, as worms plaster their tunnels, as caterpillars spin their cocoons or as sea-swallows masticate their nests.”

—Cyril Connolly

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“If you get out of yourself you can’t be a writer because the personal ingredient is what gets you going, and if you hang on to the personal ingredient any longer you’ll disappear right up your asshole.”

—Philip Roth

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“He seemed in every way reconciled to a world in which he was going to be important and wonderful.”

—Henry James

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“Immediate work, even when it is bad, is better than day-dreaming. A succession of small acts of will achieves a large result.”

—Charles Baudelaire

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“It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time.”

—Julia Cameron