For My Students Who Are Trying To

Originality Is Also Very Important To A Writer. And All Of The Writers I've Mentioned, Of Course, Are Original, But It's Important To Me That Every Book That I Do Be Really A Completely Fresh And New Look At The World. And Of Course, That Makes It Frightening To Start A New Book Because You Can't Really Depend Upon What You've Done With Previous Books.

In A World Without Future, Each Parting Of Friends Is A Death. In A World Without Future, Each Loneliness Is Final. In A World Without Future, Each Laugh Is The Last Laugh. In A World Without Future, Beyond The Present Lies Nothingness, And People Cling To The Present As If Hanging From A Cliff.

As Human Beings, Don't We Need Questions Without Answers As Well As Questions With Answers, Questions That We Might Someday Answer And Questions That We Can Never Answer?

In A World Without Future, Each Moment Is The End Of The World.

I Picked Such Seemingly Disparate Essays, I Thought It Was Important To Say What Was The Guiding Principle In The Selection Rather Than Focus On Any One Essay. I Reached For Some Principle That Had Been Subconscious In Me And Lifted It Into Consciousness. Authenticity And Sincerity Were The Most Important Unifying Principles Of All These Apparently Different Essays.