To Teach One's Self Is To Be

... Beauty, Like Ecstasy, Has Always Been Hostile To The Commonplace. And The Commonplace, Under Its Popular Label Of The Normal,has Been The Supreme Authority For Homo Sapiens Since The Days When He Was Probably Arboreal.

My First Reading Of Tolstoy Affected Me As A Revelation From Heaven, As The Trumpet Of The Judgment. What He Made Me Feel Was Notthe Desire To Imitate, But The Conviction That Imitation Was Futile.

. . . This Rage - I Have Never Forgotten It - Contained Every Anger, Every Revolt I Had Ever Felt In My Life - The Way I Felt When I Saw The Black Dog Hunted, The Way I Felt When I Watched Old Uncle Henry Taken Away To The Almshouse, The Way I Felt Whenever I Had Seen People Or Animals Hurt For The Pleasure Or Profit Of Others.

I Was Always A Feminist, For I Liked Intellectual Revolt As Much As I Disliked Physical Violence. On The Whole, I Think Women Havelost Something Precious, But Have Gained, Immeasurably, By The Passing Of The Old Order.

I Would Write Of The Universal, Not The Provincial, In Human Nature.... I Would Write Of Characters, Not Of Characteristics.