Man can be that which he wishes to be; form and substance, they are but shadows. The mind, the ego, the essence of the god-dream -- that is real, that is immortal. Robert E. Howard More Quotes by Robert E. Howard More Quotes From Robert E. Howard The only safe enemy was a headless enemy. Robert E. Howard headless safe enemy It is an ill thing to meet a man you thought dead in the woodland at dusk. Robert E. Howard dusk ill men I am unable to rouse much interest in any highly civilized race, country or epoch, including this one. Robert E. Howard interest race country The sea-road is good for wanderers and landless men. There is quenching of thirst on the grey paths of the winds, and the flying clouds to still the sting of lost dreams. Robert E. Howard dream clouds men Every twinge of sensation, even of agony, was a negation of death. Robert E. Howard negation sensations agony In the hill country, civilization steals in last, and the people retain much of the crude but vigorous mode of expression of the colonial days and earlier. Robert E. Howard expression civilization country The poem you sent me was as fiery and virile as anything you've ever written - or anybody else, for that matter. Especially the second part went to my brain like the flaming liquor of insanity. No one else besides Jack London has the power to move me just that way. Robert E. Howard brain insanity moving Don't you think that as a people, Americans have less poetry, real poetry, in their souls than any other nations? Robert E. Howard real people thinking The printed page was like wine to me. Robert E. Howard printed pages wine What shall a man say when a friend has vanished behind the doors of Death? A mere tangle of barren words, only words. Robert E. Howard barren doors men I see in the papers where Roy Guthrie committed suicide. Why, I wonder? Robert E. Howard paper suicide wonder A kingdom is not lost by a single defeat. Robert E. Howard defeat kingdoms lost Civilization is a natural and inevitable consequence - whether good or evil I am not prepared to state. Robert E. Howard evil natural civilization Wits and swords are as straws against the wisdom of the Darkness. Robert E. Howard straws wit darkness Time and times are but cogwheels, unmatched, grinding on oblivious to one another. Occasionally - oh, very rarely! - the cogs fit; the pieces of the plot snap together momentarily and give men faint glimpses beyond the veil of this everyday blindness we call reality. Robert E. Howard giving men reality I became a writer in spite of my environments. Robert E. Howard spite environment But whatever my failure, I have this thing to remember - that I was a pioneer in my profession, just as my grandfathers were in theirs, in that I was the first man in this section to earn his living as a writer. Robert E. Howard pioneers grandfather men I have not been a success, and probably never will be. Robert E. Howard It seems to me that many writers, by virtue of environments of culture, art and education, slip into writing because of their environments. Robert E. Howard writing culture art The people among which I lived - and yet live, mainly - made their living from cotton, wheat, cattle, oil, with the usual percentage of business men and professional men. Robert E. Howard oil men people
