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

He took each fact as it came and let it slip painlessly into the back of his mind, thinking, Okay, okay, I'll think about that one later; and that one; and that one; so that the alert, front part of his mind could remain free enough to keep him in command of the situation.

Anybody's marriage might benefit from an occasional embargo on talk.

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.

You want to play house, you got to have a job. You want to play very nice house, very sweet house, then you got to have a job you don't like. Great. This is the way ninety-eight-point-nine per cent of the people work things out, so believe me, buddy, you've got nothing to apologize for.