[From the entry dated "Tuesday, January 15, 1907" in Vol. 2 of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN.]
I would never venture to talk like this if I were alive. It is only by keeping steadily in my mind that my Autobiography is not to be published until I am dead, that I am enabled to force myself to say the things I think, instead of merely saying the things which I wish the reader to think I think—which is the live man’s way, and is a part of every man’s character, and cannot be changed while he is alive.