"A biography is considered complete if it..." - Quote by Virginia Woolf

“Indeed there has never been any explanation of the ebb and flow in our veins--of happiness and unhappiness.”

“and even a tea party means apprehension, breakage”

“The good diarist writes either for himself alone or for a posterity so distant that it can safely hear every secret and justly weigh every motive. For such an audience there is need neither of affectation nor of restraint. Sincerity is what they ask, detail, and volume; skill with the pen comes in conveniently, but brilliance is not necessary; genius is a hindrance even; and should you know your business and do it manfully, posterity will let you off mixing with great men, reporting famous affairs, or having lain with the first ladies in the land.”

“Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.”

“We do not learn much from learned books, but from true, sincere, human books, from frank and honest biographies.”

“What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts, not those of other things, are his history. These are his life, and they are not written. Everyday would make a whole book of 80,000 words -- 365 books a year. Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man -- the biography of the man himself cannot be written.”

“Youth and age touch only the surface of our lives.”

“As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.”

“Here I am as a human being...how can I express myself, totally and completely?”