If I'm out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog.

With one long breath, caught and held in his chest, he fought his sadness over his solitary life. Don't cry, you idiot! Live or die, but don't poison everything.

In Los Angeles all the loose objects in the country were collected, as if America had been tilted and everything that wasn't tightly screwed down had slid into Southern California.

It's usually the selfish people who are loved the most. They do what you deny yourself, and you love them for it. You give them your heart.

... unless you made your life a turning point, there was no reason for existing.

And I said to myself that unless you conceive Death to be a violent guerrilla and kidnaper who snatches those you love, and if you are not cowardly and cannot submit to such terrorism as civilized people now do in every department of life, you must pursue and inquire and explore every possibility and seek everywhere and try everything.

At moments I dislike having a face, a nose, lips, because he has them.