The Great Gatsby' [...] was my 'Tom Sawyer' when I was twelve [....]

She was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls if you hold hands with them, their goddam hand dies on you, or else they think they have to keep moving their hand all the time, as if they were afraid they'd bore you or something. Jane was different. We'd get into a goddam movie or something, and right away we'd start holding hands, and we wouldn't quit till the movie was over. And without changing the position or making a big deal out of it. You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.

Happiness is a solid and joy is a liquid.

I suspect that money is a far greater distraction for the artist than hunger.

Sometimes I see me dead in the rain.

She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.

Maybe there's a trapdoor under my chair, and I'll just disappear.