"i love the outsets, despite the fear and uncertainty that attach to all beginnings...begin to what? I begin - period. i have already begun a thousand lives this way...once you have led (life) up to a certain point it will complete itself at any cost - whether in your present time or sometime later - so why be afraid?"

"...there is still much about me that i dislike; and yet i feel already that these qualities are foriegn, contingent, not really connected to me. from this comes a certain confidence, a certain strength...whether i will succeed someday in going about entirely in my own clothes - i do not know. at any rate, i want to start off by becoming naked, then everything else will take care of itself."

- pg. 88 and 89, diaires of a young poet, rainer maria rilke