“If you're not inthe mood, you can't do that stuff right.”

“She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.”

“And I can't be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.”

“I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.”

“I don't know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn't make you happy.”

“But I was afraid of the questions (much more than the accusations) you might both put to me. ”

“is he crazy?" --Harcourt-Brace editor on Holden Caulfield”

“And I have one of those very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I'd probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up.”

“When I really worry about something, I dont just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something. Only, I dont go. Im too worried to go. I dont want to interrupt my worr...”

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”

“If I am going to be drownedif I am going to be drownedif I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and t...”

“I'm an Earth ecstatic, and my creed is simple: All life is sacred, life loves life, and we are capable of improving our behavior toward one another. As basic as that is, for me it's also tonic and ...”

“People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What Ive learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders ones reality to the person to whom one lies, making tha...”

“Before you enbark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”

“Maybe I could dole out the truth in tiny pieces that, once assembled, would make a picture that resembled a reality in which I hadnt done anything wrong.”