“Why lock yourself in your own cage when someone is handing you a key?”

“The mister days that letters are the key, but even when you know the whole family, there's so many combinations you can make. And they break their word.”

“I've told you before, I don't comprehend religion, although conviction is a concept I'm beginning to get. In any case, someone with a real religious conviction is, I propose, a religious convict, and deserves locking up.”

“But his face had that hollow look, as if there was something gone... you know that look. The inward focus. Distantly attentive to the home you're missing, or the someone you're missing. That look that a bird has when it turns it dry reptilian eye on you. That look that doesn't see you because the mind is filled up with someone it would rather see.”

“You have your own life to live, and at its end, the only opinion that amounts to anything is that which God bestows.”

“YOU HAVE YOUR OWN LIFE TO LIVE, IRIS, AND AT ITS END, THE ONLY OPINION THAT AMOUNTS TO ANYTHING IS THAT WHICH GOD BESTOWS.”

“What good is it being a painter if you can't paint yourself?”