“You can be a mighty sailor, wrestling with an alligator. Romping through the swamp.”

“If it can't be done in bed, it's not worth doing.”

“Why must the show go on?”

“Every corpse is a patriot.”

“And she would continue to say to those who would still listen that it was a classic case of betrayal (You can never tell about appearance, she'd say) and would, somewhat to her credit, know that it was no such thing. ”

“He finds me charming and so long as I don't think about it, it's ok, but I worry, what if I forget to do it or can't be charming or try, one day, just a bit too hard so that it is altogether not charming but something else. I couldn't ask for anything more or for more generosity or, and this is perhaps the most important, exquisite tact. ”

“Not many songs can fend off evil. But the right song with the right voice can be a weapon; anyone who's listened to music through headphones while riding the subway or plowing angrily through a rush-hour sidewalk knows how it can and separate you from them, allows you to say to the teeming masses that you are this and they are that.”