We're always lucky,' I said and like a fool I did not knock on wood.

No one should be alone in their old age, he thought.

He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, it is probably only insomnia. Many must have it.

I have a rotten habit of picturing the bedroom scenes of my friends.

The questioners had that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it.

Go all the way with it. Do not back off. For once, go all the goddamn way with what matters.

I'm not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy.