From being quite sure of himself and his future he becomes not at all sure. If he be an imaginative boy a door is torn open and for the first time he… - Sherwood Anderson

ადამიანთა ცხოვრება ტყეში ახალგაზრდა ხეებივითაა. მათ ახრჩობთ მხვიარა ვაზები. მხვიარები ძველი აზრები და რწმენებია, მკვდართა მიერ დარგული

The life of reality is confused, disorderly, almost always without apparent purpose, where in the artist's imaginative life there is purpose. There is determination to give the tale, the song, the painting, form - to make it true and real to the theme, not to life ...
I myself remember with what a shock I heard people say that one of my own books, Winesburg, Ohio, was an exact picture of Ohio village life. The book was written in a crowded tenement district of Chicago. The hint for almost every character was taken from my fellow lodgers in a large rooming house, many of whom had never lived in a village. The confusion arises out of the fact that others besides practicing artists have imaginations. But most people are afraid to trust their imaginations and the artist is not.

Most boys have seasons of wishing they could die gloriously instead of just being grocery clerks and going on with their humdrum lives.