I guess I'm the Black Death,' he said slowly. 'I don't seem to bring people happiness any more.

The notion of sitting down and conjuring up, not only words in which to clothe thoughts but thoughts worthy of being clothed--the whole thing was absurdly beyond his desires.

Murder your darlings.

The rich get richer and the poor get - children.

Once I thought that Lake Forest was the most glamorous place in the world. Maybe it was.

I can’t tell you just how wonderful she is. I don’t want you to know. I don’t want any one to know.

He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.