Now I know the things I know, and I do the things I do; and if you do not like me so, to hell, my love, with you!

Should they whisper false of you, Never trouble to deny; Should the words they say be true, Weep and storm and say they lie.

If all the girls attending [the Yale prom] were laid end to end, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

I like best to have one book in my hand, and a stack of others on the floor beside me, so as to know the supply of poppy and mandragora will not run out before the small hours.

You don’t want a general houseworker, do you? Or a traveling companion, quiet, refined, speaks fluent French entirely in the present tense? Or an assistant billiard-maker? Or a private librarian? Or a lady car-washer? Because if you do, I should appreciate your giving me a trial at the job. Any minute now, I am going to become one of the Great Unemployed. I am about to leave literature flat on its face. I don’t want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.

Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants.

His books are exciting and powerful and — if I may filch the word from the booksy ones — pulsing.