You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.

---

I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

---

Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.

---

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

---

Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy.

---

I'm not sentimental--I'm as romantic as you are. The idea, you know, is that the sentimental person thinks things will last--the romantic person has a desperate confidence that they won't.

---

I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again.

---

Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope.

---

Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!

---

Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away.

---