“You thought it would break you in two, but it made you twice as strong.”

“To succeed, you must never stop trying.”

“Don’t give up too soon. If you persevere you will succeed.”

“What you think of yourself in your mind is nobody’s business. Make it count.”

“That’s the thing I’ve learned about mountains: the joy you feel at scaling them is in direct proportion to how high and impassable the peak appears to be once you’re on the other side of it.”

“Money and beauty are defenses against the sorrows of this world but neither can undo the past. Only time will conquer time. The way forward is the only way back to innocence and to peace.”

“The writer’s curse is that even in solitude, no matter its duration, he never grows lonely or bored.”

“All the things that are worth doing, take time.”

“Of course, in fairness, I must remind you of this: that we writers are the most lily-livered of all craftsmen. We expect more, for the most peewee efforts, than any other people.”

“In spite of it all I didn’t want to die.”