“That's all it takes, one drop of fear to curdle love into hate.”

“Love, when you get fear in it, it's not love any more. It's hate.”

“Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing, but stealing his car, that's larceny.”

“Then she got up, went to Monty's mirror, and began combing her hair, while little cadenzas absentmindedly cascaded out of her throat, and cold drops cascaded over Mildred's heart. For Veda was stark naked. From the massive, singer's torso, with the Dairy quaking in front, to the slim hips, to the lovely legs, there wasn't so much as a garter to hide a path of skin.”

“...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 loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake”

“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.”