I am perfectly confident that I could never adequately convey to any other human being the precise reasons why I continue to refrain from suicide - the reasons, that is, why I still find existence enough of a compensation to atone for its dominantly burthensome quality.
Letter to August Derleth (25 December 1930), quoted in "H.P. Lovecraft, a Life" by S.T. Joshi, (p. 584), 1996.