1) βAn artist is someone who can hold two opposing viewpoints and still remain fully functional.β
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2) βIt is not life that's complicated, it's the struggle to guide and control life.β
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3) "Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss."
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4) βNever confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.β
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5) βThat is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.β
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6) βI'm a cynical idealist.β
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7) βShow me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy.β
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8) βWhenever you feel like criticizing anyone...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.β
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9) βGreat books write themselves, only bad books have to be written.β
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10) βThere are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice.β
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11) βYou don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.β
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12) βGenius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.β
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13) βIf you spend your life sparing peopleβs feelings and feeding their vanity, you get so you canβt distinguish what should be respected in them.β
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14) "I hope you live a life you're proud of."
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15) βWe all have souls of different ages.β
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16) βExperience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.β
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17) βLet us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.β
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18) βPeople over forty can seldom be permanently convinced of anything. At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.β
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19) βSo he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.β
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20) βYou never knew exactly how much space you occupied in peopleβs lives.β
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21) βWhat people are ashamed of usually makes a good story.β
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22) βCut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.β
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23) βI never blame failureβthere are too many complicated situations in lifeβbut I am absolutely merciless toward lack of effort.β
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24) βI want to know you moved and breathed in the same world with me.β
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25) βAll good writing is like swimming underwater and holding your breath.β
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