He had supposed for years that he had no secrets from himself. Here was proof that he had a great big secret somewhere inside, and he could not imagine what it was.

I could go on to speak of sanity as compared with insanity, decency as compared with vandalism, friendship as compared with rabies.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

As a matter of social class Ku Klux Klan would have been regarded as white trash.

I am beguiled by your physical beauty, and I am moved by how head-over-heels in love with books you are. And nowhere else have I found such thoughtful and literate reportage on the state of the American soul, as that soul makes itself known in the books we write.

I never asked to be born in the first place.

There is no good reason good can't triumph over evil, if only angels will get organized along the lines of the mafia.