Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement--discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthri...tis is different from a stiff joint.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The telephone conversation is, by its very nature, reactive, not reflective. Immediacy is its prime virtue. The immediacy delivers... quick company, instant stimulation; the stimulation is cathartic; catharsis pushes back anxiety; into open space flows the kind of thought generated by electric return. The letter, written in absorbed solitude, is an act of faith; it assumes the presence of humanity; world and self are generated from within; loneliness is courted, not feared. To write a letter is to be alone with my thoughts in the conjured presence of another person. I keep myself imaginative company. I occupy the empty room. I alone infuse the silence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I began to realize that it was bigotry of the worst kind to say that it's better to be dead than to be born retarded or blind or w...ithout a limb. It's a value judgment you're making about someone's life, based on their degree of perfection.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »