Oh, it's lovely to see you!' Franny said as the cab moved off. 'I've missed you.' The words were no sooner out than she realized that she didn't mean them at all.

He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.

He said I was unequipped to meet life because I had no sense of humor.

It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true. People always think something's all true.

You take a really sleepy man, Esmé, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac — with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact.

After I go out this door, I may only exist in the minds of all my acquaintances…I may be an orange peel.

Did you ever get fed up?' I said. 'I mean did you ever get scared that everything was going to go lousy unless you did something?