This is a good place," he said. "There's a lot of liquor," I agreed.

you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.

The parody is the last refuge of the frustrated writer. Parodies are what you write when you are associate editor of the Harvard Lampoon. The greater the work of literature, the easier the parody. The step up from writing parodies is writing on the wall above the urinal.

There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes.

Life is pain, so live it up while you can.

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

As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.