Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.

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

If my work has a theme, I suspect it is a simple one: that most human beings are inescapably alone, and therein lies their tragedy.

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.

Every man has a right to keep his own sentiments if he pleases.

He knew it was possible for shame to be nursed and doctored like an illness, if you wanted to keep it separate from the rest of your life, but that didn't mean there'd be any way to keep from knowing it was there.

In avoiding specific goals he had avoided specific limitations. For the time being the world, life itself, could be his chosen field.