“...if he can write a book at all, a writer cannot do it by peeping over his shoulder at somebody else, any more than a woman can have a baby by watching some other woman have one. It is a genital process, and all of its stages are intra-abdominal;”

“I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.”

“If you have to do it, you can do it.”

“You have to wait for your mind to catch up with whatever it is it’s working on; then you can write a novel.”

“O.K.""Gee I'm glad.""Me too. I'm so sick of hot dogs and beer and apple pie with cheese on the side I could heave it all in the river.""You'll love it, Frank. We'll get a place up in the mountains, where it's cool, and then, after I get my act ready, we can go all over the world with it. Go as we please, do as we please, and have plenty of money to spend. Have you got a little bit of gypsy in you?""Gypsy? I had rings in my ears when I was born.”

“A year and a half had indeed made some changes in Veda's appearance. She was still no more than medium height, but her haughty carriage made her seem taller. The hips were as slim as ever, but had taken on some touch of voluptuousness. The legs were Mildred's, to the last graceful contour. But the most noticeable change was what Monty brutally called the Dairy: two round, swelling protuberances that had appeared almost overnight on the high, arching chest. They would have been large, even for a woman: but for a child of thirteen they were positively startling. Mildred had a mystical feeling about them: they made her think tremulously of Love, Motherhood, and similar milky concepts.”

“A woman is a funny animal.”