Every word born of an inner necessity — writing must never be anything else. – Etty Hillesum, quoted in Ten Fun Things to Do Before You Die by Karol Jackowski

It seems to me that the problem with diaries, and the reason that most of them are so boring, is that every day we vacillate between examining our hangnails and speculating on cosmic order. – Ann Beattie, Picturing Will, 1989

An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff. – Adlai Stevenson, quoted in Ronald D. Fuchs, You Said a Mouthful