You seek identity in the midst of indistinguishab le chaos, in sprawling nameless reality.

Because he had no place he could stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the stars.

We lay on our backs looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when he made life so sad and disinclined.

I ate apple pie and ice cream—it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer. There were the most beautiful bevies of girls everywhere I looked in Des Moines that afternoon—they were coming home from high school—but I had no time for thoughts like that…So I rushed past the pretty girls, and the prettiest girls in the world live in Des Moines.

Between incomprehensible and incoherent sits the madhouse. I am not in the madhouse.

But, outside of being a sweet little girl, she was awfully dumb and capable of doing horrible things.

I rather like the idea of having all my hours to myself: eating a Fudge Sundae, watching a movie, sleeping on my couch, singing in the bathroom, studying the woods, kidding around with a girl, playing cards lazily - all kinds of stuff that American brands 'shiftless.'