“I don't think I'd have been in such a hurry to reach adulthood if I'd known the whole thing was going to be ad-libbed.”

“And I saw that all my life I had known that this was going to happen, and that I'd been afraid for a long time, I'd been afraid for a long time. There's fear, of course, with everybody. But now it had grown, it had grown gigantic; it filled me and it filled the whole world.”

“I don't know how I'd made it seventeen years without kissing. It was the finest thing I'd ever known. Like stumbling into heaven.”

“Glory be!' said the Cabby. 'I'd ha' been a better man all my life if I'd known there were things like this.”

“If I'd known it was going to be the last time he'd ever hold me, I'd have paid better attention.”

“I'd rather be a 'could-be' if I cannot be an 'are' because a 'could-be' is a 'maybe' who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a 'has-been' than a 'might-have-been' by far; for a 'might-have-been' has never been, but a 'has' was once an 'are.”