“Because, you see, the cruel gods are stronger than the kind gods, and they will always beat them in the end. You doubt it? Look at the world, my brother, my sister. And so the spirit of Roth is here with me also, and battles for my soul. And I don't know who will win.”

“Thinking? You're not thinking. You're reasoning without reasons, and that's just another word for prejudice.”

“Alan Blunt got in touch with me and asked me to put you up here for the rest of the week, to pretend that you're my son. I have to say, you don't look anything like me.""I don't look anything like myself either," Alex said.”

“I don't expect you to be like them. Don't want you to be. It's not them I want, it's you. From the moment we met, it's only been you.”

“I felt I had thrown away so much inmy life, but I also felt an unspoken bond between me and my city.I'd spent so much time wandering the streets of L.A. and hikingthrough the Hollywood Hills that I sensed there was a nonhumanentity, maybe the spirit of the hills and the city, who had me in hersights and was looking after me. Even if I was a loner in my ownband, at least I still felt the presence of the city I lived in.”

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

“You have to work to carve out your own little corner, and I'm certainly smacking my head against the wall trying to make a dent. I just hope I don't get brain-damaged before I get there”