“It was a sombre snowy afternoon, and the gas-lamps were lit in the big reverberating station. As he paced the platform, waiting for the Washington express, he remembered that there were people who thought there would one day be a tunnel under the Hudson through which the trains of the Pennsylvania railway would run straight into New York. They were of the brotherhood of visionaries who likewise predicted the building of ships that would cross the Atlantic in five days, the invention of a flying machine, lighting by electricity, telephonic communication without wires, and other Arabian Nights marvels.”

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying. ”

“If there were a god of New York, it would be the Greek's Hermes, the Roman's Mercury. He embodies New York qualities: the quick exchange, the fastness of language and style, craftiness, the mixing of people and crossing of borders, imagination.”

“If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.”

“In this universe the night was falling; the shadows were lengthening towards an east that would not know another dawn. But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning lingered; and along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again.”

“He said he would be back and we'd drink wine togetherHe said that everything would be better than beforeHe said we were on the edge of a new relationHe said he would never again cringe before his fatherHe said that he was going to invent full-timeHe said he loved me that going into meHe said was going into the world and the skyHe said all the buckles were very firmHe said the wax was the best waxHe said Wait for me here on the beachHe said Just don't cryI remember the gulls and the wavesI remember the islands going dark on the seaI remember the girls laughingI remember they said he only wanted to get away from meI remember mother saying : Inventors are like poets, a trashy lotI remember she told me those who try out inventions are worseI remember she added : Women who love such are the worst of allI have been waiting all day, or perhaps longer.I would have liked to try those wings myself.It would have been better than this.”