“Ten years was not enough. Stone shouldnot crumble after just a decade of neglect. The filth should not have piled up so quickly—not with so few inhabitants, most of whom were incapacitated. It was as if Elantris were intent on dying, a city committing suicide.”

“The readers who commited suicide after reading 'Werther' were not ideal but merely sentimental readers.”

“Committing suicide so as not to be murdered is the worst reason I've ever heard of to die. ”

“In other words, if Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy showed more than their fair share of pathology it was due less to the requirements of their creative work than to the personal sufferings caused by the unhealthy conditions of a Russian society nearing collapse. If so many American poets and playwrights committed suicide or ended up addicted to drugs and alcohol it was not their creativity that did it but an artistic scene that promised much, gave few rewards and left nine out of ten artists neglected if not ignored.”

“Most women found that the few weeks after a miscarriage were extremely fertile, as if the body wanted to quickly rectify its mistake.”

“Think of all the fine men we should lose is suicide were not so cowardly”