“The Bohemian who tires of life, who gives up by retirement into insamity or suicide, is not necessarily one who had failed in what he wants to express.”

“The land of easy mathematics where he who works adds up and he who retires subtracts.”

“Clinton sighed, and gave up. All his life he had given up. He didn't know why it was like that; why a man who wanted nothing but to live honestly and industriously and usefully - who, briefly, asked only the privileges of giving and helping - had had to compromise and surrender at every turn. But that was the way it had been, and that apparently was the way it was to be.”

“She was not as stupid as some I have had, and better company, but still perhaps her going was for the best. She was not what I needed.""Because I failed," whispered Alyce in the shadows."Because she gave up," continued the midwife. "I need an apprentice who can do what I tell her, take what I give her, who can try and risk and fail and try again and not give up...”

“Where are the messy women who love the fragile boys.Where are the suicides who are my heroes.Where are the bitches who know what they want, who love what they do, bosomy and declarative, happy to be artistic in this stupid night.”

“Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.”