There was not a moving up into vacated places; there was simply an anachronistic staying on between a vanishing past and an incalculable future.

I had a strong sudden instinct that I must be alone. I didn’t want to see any people at all. I had seen so many people all my life -- I was an average mixer, but more than average in a tendency to identify myself, my ideas, my destiny, with those of all classes that came in contact with. I was always saving or being saved -- in a single morning I would go through the emotions ascribable to Wellington at Waterloo. I lived in a world of inscrutable hostiles and inalienable friends and supporters.

She smiled, a moving childish smile that was like all the lost youth in the world.

She wanted to crawl into his pocket and be safe forever.

Isn't Hollywood a dump-in the human sense of the word. A hideous town, pointed up by the insulting gardens of its rich, full of the human spirit at a new low of debasement.

There was a kindliness about intoxication - there was that indescribable gloss and glamour it gave, like the memories of ephemeral and faded evenings.

Often I think writing is a sheer paring away of oneself leaving always something thinner, barer, more meagre.