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There was no really good true war book during the entire four years of the war. The only true writing that came through during the war was in poetry. One reason for this is that poets are not arrested as quickly as prose writers.
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You're beautiful, like a May fly.
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I do not think I had ever seen a nastier-looking man. Under the black hat, when I had first seen them, the eyes had been those of an unsuccessful rapist.
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I mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together
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You are so brave and quiet I forget you are suffering.
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The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.
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Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?
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What did I know best that I had not written about and Lost? What did I know about truly and care for the most?
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The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing.
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Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
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I don't like to leave anything,' the man said. 'I don't like to leave things behind.
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But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there.
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You may talk. And I may listen. And miracles might happen.
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The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.
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Cowards die a thousand deaths, but the brave only die once.
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But in the night he woke and held her tight as though she were all of life and it was being taken from him. He held her feeling she was all of life there was and it was true.
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Intelligence is so damn rare and the people who have it often have such a bad time with it that they get bitter or propagandistic and then it's not much use.
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I was as afraid as the next man in my time and maybe more so. But with the years, fear had come to be regarded as a form of stupidity to be classed with overdrafts, acquiring a venereal disease or eating candies. Fear is a child's vice and while I loved to feel it approach, as one does with any vice, it was not for grown men and the only thing to be afraid of was the presence of true and imminent danger in a form that you should be aware of and not be a fool if you were responsible for others.
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A good life is not measured by any biblical span.
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He was just a coward and that was the worst luck any many could have.
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You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafTs.
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I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.
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I never had to choose a subject - my subject rather chose me.
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You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.