Writing. It’s corrupting to write with the intent to moralize, to elevate people’s moral standards.
Nothing prevents me from being a writer except laziness. A good writer.
Why is writing important? Mainly, out of egotism, I suppose. Because I want to be that persona, a writer, and not because there is something I must say. Yet why not that too? With a little ego-building — such as the fait accompli this journal provides — I shall win through to the confidence that I (I) have something to say, that should be said.
My “I” is puny, cautious, too sane. Good writers are roaring egotists, even to the point of fatuity. Sane men, critics, correct them — but their sanity is parasitic on the creative fatuity of genius.
And later:Being queer makes me feel more vulnerable.
Or maybe:
The writer must be four people:
1) the nut, the obsédee
2) the moron
3) the stylist
4) the critic
1) supplies the material
2) lets it come out
3) is taste
4) is intelligence
a great writer has all 4 — but you can still be a good writer with only 1) and 2); they’re most important.
Or then, this one:The fear of becoming old is born of the recognition that one is not living now the life that one wishes. It is equivalent to a sense
of abusing the present.