SUFFERING = INSIGHT = CHANGE You, the writer, invent your hero’s suffering in order to make her change. What ordeal, you ask yourself, can I put my protagonist through that will compel her to deepen her understanding of life and of herself, that will force her to confront some issue she has either been oblivious to or deliberately hiding from, that will make her change and grow (even if that change and growth involve further suffering)? You ask yourself that because if you didn’t ask it, there would be no story. Black Irish JAB #9, “Make Your Hero Suffer” We as writers must also ask, “What kind of suffering should our hero undergo?”

The feeling of compassion for other living beings reminds me of the feeling of pain in our body.

Just as you can become less sensitive to pain in your body with time, you can become less compassionate to others.

The first condition to bringing religion into your life is manifesting love and pity toward all living creatures.

—CHINESE WISDOM

Compassion for animals is closely connected with character type.

You can say with confidence that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a kind man.

—ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER

Every murder is terrible.

But most terrible is the murder in which you want to eat the creature you have killed, when you kill for the satisfaction of your stomach.

—MIKHAIL GOLDSTEIN

When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to him who suffers, and try to help him.