Adversity does teach who your real friends are.

People give themselves to you, in their talking, and in other ways, if you are quiet and patient and let them, and not in such a damned rush to give yourself to them you go bat-blind and deaf.

Experience suggests it doesn't matter so much how you got here, as what you do after you arrive.

I am who I choose to be. I have always been what I chose, though not always what I pleased.

I do think, half of what we call madness is just some poor slob dealing with pain by a strategy that annoys the people around him.

If you make it plain you like people, it's hard for them to resist liking you back.

Oh, was that liquor of yours a stimulant?" asked Elena. "I wondered why he didn't fall asleep." "Couldn't you tell?" chuckled Mayhew. "Not really." Miles twisted his head to take in Elena's upside-down worried face, and smile in weak reassurance. Sparkly black and purple whirlpools clouded his vision. Mayhew's laughter faded. "My God," he said hollowly, "you mean he's like that all the time?