My dad always told us we only got one match to start the camp fire. My go to was always dry pine needles as kindling but as an adult I learned to find fat wood which is pretty awesome if you can get it. Pine needles are still the shit but a chunk or two of fat wood can get you over the hump when the regular shit isn't working so well. I have meant to get better using flint and steel. I've gotten fires going with them but you really need some nice, dry kindling to get that to work. I bought a can of magnesium shavings as a cheat. Much easier than trying to shave it off those little square fire starters.
If you have styrofoam, you don't need diesel. I burned a few large chunks of styrofoam that my new TV came packed in out in my burning barrel and basically caused a minor ecological disaster. I had flames coming 10 feet out of the burning barrel and the cloud of black smoke practically made my house disappear even though I was only 50 yards away from it. It was pretty impressive. My neighbor drove by and I'm kind of surprised he didn't call the fire department.