“So much in writing depends on the superficiality of one's days.”

“Pain is easy to write. In pain we're all happily individual. But what can one write about happiness?”

“If a woman is in one's thoughts all day, one should not have a dream of her at night.”

“He gave her a bright fake smile; so much of life was a putting off of unhappiness for another time. Nothing was ever lost by delay. He had a dim idea that perhaps if one delayed long enough, things were taken out of one's hands altogether by death.”

“Pyle could see pain when it was in front of his eyes. (I don’t write that as a sneer; there are so many of us who can’t)”

“I ought to write funny books. Life is really too horribly funny, but unless one`s an outsider looking on, it`s all such a bore.”

“It seemed after all that one never really missed a thing. To be a human being one had to drink the cup. If one were lucky on one day, or cowardly on another, it was presented on a third occasion.”