"Tense, unnerved, and close to madness before writing—and when I read what I’ve written it looks so calm."

“My way of thinking is often so wrong, so untenable, because I think as if I were talking to someone else.”

“Proud of my near-madness, as if I had attained a goal.”

“I was angry at her for not being what I wanted.”

“The main thing:... not to let myself be defined by history, not to take it as an excuse—despise it in those who hide their personal insignificance behind it—and yet know it, in order to understand people and above all to see through them .”

“A fine thing: suddenly to forget about one’s history, one’s past, to stop feeling that one’s present happiness is endangered by what one used to be.”