“Communists are people who fancied that they had an unhappy childhood.”

“Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness.”

“Mice: What is the best early training for a writer?

Y. C.: An unhappy childhood.”

“It's the most unhappy people who most fear change.”

“It's the most unhappy people who most fear change. ”

“Unhappiness. There are all kinds of unhappy people in the world. I suppose it would be no exaggeration to say that the world is composed entirely of unhappy people. But those people can fight their unhappiness with society fairly and squarly, and society for its part easily understands and sympathizes with such struggles. My unhappiness stemmed entirely from my own vices, and I had no way of fighting anybody.”

“The odds on any intelligent person having an unhappy childhood are better than fair, and the odds on a sad ending are practically off the board.”

“I am convinced that, except in a few extraordinary cases, one form or another of an unhappy childhood is essential to the formation of exceptional gifts.”

“A child gets sick with a chronic disease of unhappiness not from unhappy circumstances but from unhappy people around him. Unhappy people cannot raise happy children; it’s impossible.”

“People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children.”