But I always felt that I'd rather be provincial hot-tamale than soup without seasoning.

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

The helpless ecstasy of loosing himself in her charm was a powerful opiate rather than a tonic.

A writer like me must have an utter confidence, an utter faith in his star. It's an almost mystical feeling, a feeling of nothing-can-happen-to me, nothing-can-touch-me.... I once had it. But through a series of blows, many of them my own fault, something happened to that sense of immunity and I lost my grip.

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people's luck.

Grown up, and that is a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another.

And he could not tell why the struggle was worthwhile, why he had determined to use the utmost himself and his heritage from the personalities he had passed... He stretched out his arms to the crystalline, radiant sky. I know myself," he cried, "But that is all.