“I am so far from being a pessimist...on the contrary, in spite of my scars, I am tickled to death at life.”

“Why am I afraid to dance, I who love music and rhythm and grace and song and laughter? Why am I afraid to live, I who love life and the beauty of flesh and the living colors of the earth and sky and sea? Why am I afraid to love, I who love love?”

“Why am I afraid to live, I who love life and the beauty of flesh and the living colors of earth and sky and sea? Why am I afraid of love, I who love love?.. Why was I born without a skin, O God, that I must wear armor in order to touch or to be touched?”

“HOGAN-No, I wouldn't think it, but my motto in life is never trust anyone too far, not even myself.”

“LAVINIA: I want to feel love! Love is all beautiful! I never used to know that! I was a fool! We'll be married soon... We'll make an island for ourselves on land and we'll have children and love them and teach them to love life so that they can never be possessed by hate and death!”

“It was a great mistake, my being born a man, I would have been much more successful as a seagull or a fish. As it is, I will always be a stranger who never feels at home, who does not really want and is not really wanted, who can never belong, who must be a little in love with death!”

“I have had my dance with Folly, nor do I shirk the blame;I have sipped the so-called Wine of Life and paid the price of shame;But I know that I shall find surcease, the rest my spirit craves,Where the rainbows play in the flying spray,'Mid the keen salt kiss of the waves.”