The fact that there are so many weak, poor and boring stories and novels written and published in America has been ascribed by our rebels to the horrible squareness of our institutions, the idiocy of power, the debasement of sexual instincts, and the failure of writers to be alienated enough. The poems and novels of these same rebellious spirits, and their theoretical statements, are grimy and gritty and very boring too, besides being nonsensical, and it is evident by now that polymorphous sexuality and vehement declarations of alienation are not going to produce great works of art either.

Only self-hatred could lead him to ruin himself because his heart was "broken.

The hour that burst the spirit's sleep.

How should I know why! I didn't invent human beings, Iggy.

There was a disturbance in my heart, a voice that spoke there and said, I want, I want, I want! It happened every afternoon, and when I tried to suppress it it got even stronger.

A man should be able to hear, and to bear, the worst that could be said of him.

Everybody knows there is no fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold down one thing, you hold down the adjoining.