So the more things remained the same, the more they changed after all. Nothing endures. Not love, not a tree, not even a death by violence.

I knew that part of friendship consisted in accepting a friend’s shortcomings, which sometimes included his parents.

Young people in my generation were sort of in lockstep, and it wasn't just the '40s, either. In the '30s and in the '50s it was the same. No one ever dropped out unless he got sick or got kicked out.

As I walked briskly out the road the wind knifed at my face, but this sun caressed the back of my neck.

There was no harm in taking aim, even if the target was a dream.

As I said, this was my sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.

I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.