In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.

More from In diary

• The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.
• A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you.
• Give a critic an inch, he'll write a play.
• How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past?
• I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.
• I have owed you this letter for a very long time — but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool.