"We're all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But once you get the damn hurt, use it; don't cheat with it."
“They are not brave, the days when we are twenty one. They are full of little cowardices, little fears without foundation, and one is so easily bruised, so swiftly wounded, one falls to the first barbed word. […]
The adult mind can lie with untroubled conscience and a gay composure, but in those days even a small deception scoured the tongue, lashing one against the stake itself.”