“Ever since I was first read to, then started reading to myself, there has never been a line read that I didn't hear. As my eyes followed the sentence, a voice was saying it silently to me. It isn't my mother's voice, or the voice of any person I can identify, certainly not my own. It is human, but inward, and it is inwardly that I listen to it. It is to me the voice of the story or the poem itself.” FirstsHumansPersonsI CanStoriesEyeMotherReadingVoiceLinesMy OwnSentencesInward Book:One Writer's Beginnings Source: One Writer's Beginnings
“Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made my book than my book has made me--a book consubstantial with its author, concerned with my own self, an integral part of my life; not concerned with some third-hand, extraneous purpose, like all other books.” MadeBookSelfHandsPurposeMy OwnColorPaintingConcernedThirdsOriginalsInward Book:The Complete Works: Essays, Travel Journal, Letters Source: The Complete Works: Essays, Travel Journal, Letters