Quit not your present occupation; black boots, clean knives, wear plush all your life, but don't turn literary man.

Look at me.

I am the first novelist in Europe.
I have ranged with eagle wings over the wide regions of literature, and perched on every eminence in its turn.

I have gazed with eagle eyes on the sun of philosophy, and fathomed the mysterious depths of the human mind.

All languages are familiar to me, all thoughts are known to me, all men understood by me.