This is not something I received in email, but something I felt was well worth adding to my site. I heard about the author, William Saroyan, while reading an interview of Johnny Depp (whom I greatly admire as an actor). Since I really liked the author's quote that was included in the interview, I went searching for more information on him and found another quote I agreed with on a philosophical level. The more snippets I find of his writings, the more excited I get about looking into his work. Sounds like this author is something really special. :) Here are the quotes that made such an impression on me...
First, the quote from the article that led me to look for more info:
"In the time of your life, live so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are the things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart. Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself.
No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live--so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."
"The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough."
"The purpose of writing is both to keep up with life and to run ahead of it."
~Willam Saroyan, 1908-1981
And some info from the site I found amusing:
"Saroyan died in 1981. He was 72. Gifted with a strange prescience, he had affixed this title to one of his final collections of stories, poems, short plays and essays: "I Used to Believe I Had Forever -- Now I'm Not So Sure." Five days before his death, Saroyan called The Associated Press. To the wire service he left what he wished to be a posthumous statement: "Everybody has to die, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?"
Hope you'll find this interesting enough to look up some of his work as well. :)