A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. - Ray Bradbury

A book is a loaded gun.

There are too many of us, he thought. There are billions of us and that's too many. Nobody knows anyone. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your heart out. Strangers come and take your blood. Good God, who were those men? I never saw them before in my life!

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.

To feed your Muse, then, you should always have been hungry about life since you were a child. If not, it is a little late to start.