“Sometimes I put on a black scuba suit and go walking on the beach, to relax. If I could, I’d sleep in a scuba suit—on a waterbed. Not that I actually ever get in the ocean. Too many dangerous things in the water, like barracudas, sharks, and of course there are many lawyers here on the east coast.”

“I wear a solar radiation suit. The lights we have over our artificial fields simulate real sunlight, so if I were in there for too long, I’d get a sunburn just like if I was on a beach. I guess up on the Burn (that’s what we call the land) they had something called sunscreen, but then some dermatologist down here designed the solar radiation suits and said they were much more effective protection. Sometimes I want to smack him.”

“I want to be a scientist who studies the ocean when I grow up. I would go out to sea, and scuba dive, and find new things, and National Geographic will hire me.”Sure, Nudge. Probably around the time I become president.”

“Writing is beautiful, like putting on a gold suit and going to sleep in it.”

“This is the East Coast, boy. I know they're pretty laissez-faire about dress in your neck of the woods, but back here 52. they don't let you run around in your bathing suit all year long.Blacks and blues, that's the ticket, blacks and blues… (Bunny Corcoran to Richard Papen)”

“Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”