“Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness.”

“What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Dec...”

“If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare i...”

“We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.”

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”

“We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.”

“No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.”

“Truth is most beautiful undraped.”

“Reading is thinking with someone else's head instead of ones own.”

“And if I'm guilty of having gratuitous sex, then I'm also guilty of having gratuitous violence, and gratuitous feasting, and gratuitous description of clothes, and gratuitous heraldry, because very...”

“Creative work is often driven by pain. It may be that if you don't have something in the back of your head driving you nuts, you may not do anything. It's not a good arrangement. If I were God, I w...”

“The calling of an author is more than just to entertain, but also to share ones experiences with the world.”

“It will generally be found that, as soon as the terrors of life reach the point at which they outweigh the terrors of death, a man will put an end to his life. But the terrors of death offer consid...”