Intelligent, thinking people could take things like this in their stride, just as they took the larger absurdities of deadly dull jobs in the city and deadly dull homes in the suburbs. Economic circumstances might force you to live in this environment, but the important thing was to keep from being contaminated. The important thing, always, was to remember who you were.

...his job was the very least important part of his life, never to be mentioned except in irony.

Do you know what the definition of insane is? Yes. It’s the inability to relate to another human being. It’s the inability to love.

He couldn't even tell whether he was angry or contrite, whether it was forgiveness he wanted or the power to forgive.

He had won but he didn't feel like a winner.

if you wanted to do something absolutely honest, something true, it always turned out to be a thing that had to be done alone.

Our ability to measure and apportion time affords an almost endless source of comfort.