Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.

The darkest secret of this country, I am afraid, is that too many of its citizens imagine that they belong to a much higher civilization somewhere else. That higher civilization doesn’t have to be another country. It can be the past instead—the United States as it was before it was spoiled by immigrants and the enfranchisement of the blacks. This state of mind allows too many of us to lie and cheat and steal from the rest of us, to sell us junk and addictive poisons and corrupting entertainments. What are the rest of us, after all, but sub-human aborigines?

I don't think there would be many jokes, if there weren't constant frustration and fear and so forth. It's a response to bad troubles like crime.

He had the air of a spy in a melodrama, missing nothing, liking nothing, looking forward to the great day when everything would be turned upside down.

The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not.

That’s the secret of artistic unity. Anybody can achieve it, if he or she will make something with only one person in mind.

All right - I'll tell you what you did for me: you went for happy, silly, beautiful walks with me.