The fiction writer has to engage in a continual examination of conscience. He has to be aware of the freak in himself.
But let's face it, I still have to look at my self and look at the things I've done down the stretch.
The moral man is he who is opposed to injustice per se, opposed to injustice wherever he finds it; the moral man looks for injustice first of all in himself.
Let each of us examine his thoughts
...the most serious thing, and the strangest, is that we are afraid to the point of panic, not so much of seeing ourselves as of being seen by ourselves. This is our root absurdity. What is behind this great fear?
Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
All players are their own worst critics. We are harder on ourselves than anyone else is.
It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.
Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.
If, while observing the boundless universe, the writer is able to scrutinise his own self as well as others, the resulting incisiveness of his observations will far surpass objective descriptions of reality.
May we be as severe with ourselves over our own subtle sins as we are with the vile sins we condemn in others
The scrutiny we give other people should be for ourselves.
Sometimes, I have to really monitor myself, but the only monitoring job I really do on myself on stage is, Is this truthful? Is this truthful? Is this truthful? Ideally, I send it in a flow of truth.
That no one, no one at all, should try to search into himself! But the wallet of the person in front is carefully kept in view. [Lat., Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere, nemo! Sed praecedenti spectatur mantica tergo.]
Sit not down without assurance. Get alone, and bring thy heart to the bar of trial; force it to answer the interrogatories put to it; set the qualifications of the saints on one side, and the qualifications of thy soul on the other side, and then judge what resemblance there is between them.
Here's one way I can know that I've forgotten the gospel of grace: when your sin bothers me more than my sin.
