He smoked a cigarette, standing in the dark and listening to her undress. She made sea sounds; something flapped like a sail; there was the creak of ropes; then he heard the wave-against-a-wharf smack of rubber on flesh. Her call for him to hurry was a sea-moan, and when he lay beside her, she heaved, tidal, moon-driven.

Prayers for the condemned man will be offered on an adding machine. Numbers constitute the only universal language.

He smoked a cigarette, standing in the dark and listening to her undress. She made sea sounds; something flapped like a sail; there was the creak of ropes; then he heard the wave-against-a-wharf smack of rubber on flesh. Her call for him to hurry was a sea-moan, and when he lay beside her, she heaved, tidal, moon-driven.

Feeling is of the heart and nerves and the crudeness of its expression has nothing to do with its intensity.

He read it for the same reason an animal tears at a wounded foot: to hurt the pain.

Let him ride a horse. He's a cowboy ain't he?

It's solitary drinking that makes drunkards.