Don't tell people what you are thinking, or you will miss them terribly when you are away.

I prayed for the city to be cleared of people, for the gift of being alone—a-l-o-n-e: which is the one New York prayer that rarely gets lost or delayed in channels, and in no time at all everything I touched turned to solid loneliness.

Each of his phrases was rather like a little ancient island, inundated by a miniature sea of whiskey.

You don't have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.

God, I wish you could have been there.

Oh, I don’t know. That digression business got on my nerves. I don’t know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It’s more interesting and all.

You're lucky if you get time to sneeze in this goddam phenomenal world.