We want to believe. Young students try to believe in older authors, constituents try to believe in their Congressmen, countries try to believe in their statesmen, but they can't. Too many voices, too much scattered, illogical ill-considered criticism.

I have lived hard and ruined the essential innocence [sic] in myself that could make it that possible [sic], and the fact that I have abused liquor is something to be paid for with suffering and death perhaps but not renunciation.

Experience is not worth the getting. It's not a thing that happens pleasantly to a passive you--it's a wall that an active you runs up against.

I was too absorbed to be responsive

Of the things they possessed in common, greatest of all was their almost uncanny pull at each others hearts.

You really ought to read more books - you know, those things that look like blocks but come apart on one side.

He was so terrible that he was no longer terrible, only dehumanized.