"Premie'  re approximation: j'e  cris pour de  truire, en les de  crivant avec pre  cision, des monstres nocturnes qui menacent d'envahir ma vie e  veille  e. First general point: I write to destroy, by describing exactly the nocturnal monsters that threaten to invade my waking life."

Next Quote

I don't believe that we are what we do although many thinkers argue otherwise. I believe that what we do is, very often, a poor approximation of what we are -- an imperfect manifestation of a much better totality. Even the best of us sometimes bite off, as it were, less than we can chew.

— Donald Barthelme