Two-thirds Of My Energies Go In Trying

I Am In Paris. Yes Ma'am , I Made It Back. I Came Up From Berlin, Stopped Here Ten Days, Fought A Losing Battle Against My Deepest Inclinations, Pulled Myself Out By The Hair And Went To Madrid...madrid Is A Lovely Enchanting City, And There Was Almost Ready For Me A Kind Of Penthouse Full Of Sunlight, A Roof Garden, And So On. I Gave One Look At It All, Returned To The Hotel And Went To Bed And Wept Bitterly For Eleven Hours...why? Because I Had Seen Paris And Could Not Endure The Thought Of Being Anywhere Else.

There Have Been Many Times When I Have Been So Entirely Sickened Of Life It Was Very Hard To Work To Keep On, A Half Dozen Times I Have Been Tempted To Suicide, But I Am Glad I Did Not Give Way, For I Have Always Felt That The Last Half Of My Life Would Somehow Atone For The First Half, And I Still Think It May ... It Is Not Possible To Live In This World Without Suffering Unless One Is A Born Stone. But It Is Also Possible To Have A Great Deal Of Happiness In Spite Of The Suffering.

Grant That The Idea Of God Is The Most Splendid Single Act Of The Creative Human Imagination, And That All His Multiple Faces And Attributes Correspond To Some Need And Satisfy Some Deep Desire In Mankind; Still, For The Inquirers, It Is Impossible Not To Conclude That This Mystical Concept Has Been Harnessed Rudely To Machinery Of The Most Mundane Sort, And Has Been Made To Serve The Ends Of An Organization Which, Ruling Under Divine Guidance, Has Ruled Very Little Better, And In Some Respects, Worse, Than Certain Rather Mediocre But Frankly Manmade Systems Of Government.

I Have Not Much Interest In Anyone's Personal History After The Tenth Year, Not Even My Own. Whatever One Was Going To Be Was All Prepared Before That.

I Have A Great Deal Of Religious Symbolism In My Stories Because I Have A Very Deep Sense Of Religion And Also I Have A Religious Training. And I Suppose You Don't Say, `i'm Going To Have The Flowering Judas Tree Stand For Betrayal,' But Of Course It Does.