“There's a taste in the air, sweet and vaguely antiseptic, that reminds him of his teenage years in these streets, and of a general state of longing, a hunger for life to begin that from this distan...”

“The luxury of being half-asleep, exploring the fringes of psychosis in safety.”

“You can tell a lot from a person's nails. When a life starts to unravel, they're among the first to go.”

“It troubles him to consider the powerful currents and fine-tuning that alter fate, the close and distant influences, the accidents of character and circumstance.”

“Becoming drunk is a journey that generally elates him in the early stageshe's good company, expansive, mischievous and fun, the famous old poet, almost as happy listening as talking. But once the d...”

“Or he was simply pretendinglike many drinkers, he liked to think each new day drew a line under the day before.”

“Sex can be used either for self-affirmation or for self-transcendence either to intensify the ego and consolidate the social persona by some kind of conspicuous embarkation and heroic conquest, or...”

“He didn't know all that much about how the machinery worked anyway. Such knowledge was for specialists. In war, as in love, he was a fearless, happy-go-lucky adventurer.”

“If she did experience sex--or something close to it--in high school, I'm sure it would have been less out of sexual desire or love than literary curiosity.”