I want to let her know though that all the nights sleeping beside her even the useless arguments were things ever splendid and the hard words I ever feared to say can now be said: I love you.

The shortest distance between two points is often unbearable.

A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around, so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be. It wasn't make-believe or cheating. The other way was make-believe and cheating: living your life without a man like him around.

To me, nudity is a joke. I don't think nude people are very attractive at all. I like my women fully clothed. I like to imagine what might be under there. It might not be the standard thing. Imagine, stripping a woman down, and she has a body like a little submarine. With periscope, propellers, torpedoes. That would be the one for me. I'd marry her right off and be faithful to the end.

It’s hard to drink when you dance. And it’s hard to dance when you drink.

terror finally becomes almost bearable but never quite terror creeps like a cat crawls like a cat across my mind

I will remember the kisses, our lips raw with love, and how you gave me everything you had and how I offered you what was left of me.