When people are engaged in something they are not proud of, they do not welcome witnesses. In fact, they come to believe the witness causes the troub… - John Steinbeck

What I am mourning is perhaps not worth saving, but I regret its loss nevertheless.

But Charley doesn’t have our problems. He doesn’t belong to a species clever enough to split the atom but not clever enough to live in peace with itself. He doesn’t even know about race, nor is he concerned with his sisters’ marriage. It’s quite the opposite. Once Charley fell in love with a dachshund, a romance racially unsuitable, physically ridiculous, and mechanically impossible. But all these problems Charley ignored. He loved deeply and tried dogfully. It would be difficult to explain to a dog the good and moral purpose of a thousand humans gathered to curse one tiny human. I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quick and vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.

… 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.