The taste of the usual was like cinders in his mouth, and there were moments when he felt as if he were being buried alive under his future.

There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there's no reason why you shouldn't have a fairly good time.

Her mind was an hotel where facts came and went like transient lodgers, without leaving their address behind, and frequently without paying for their board.

My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet.

Life's just a perpetual piecing together of broken bits.

They are all alike you know. They hold their tongues for years and you think you're safe, but when the opportunity comes they remember everything.

He had her in his arms, her face like a wet flower at his lips, and all their vain terrors shriveling up like ghosts at sunrise.