“But he is tired. He puts the pistol to his head again. He says, “I never asked to be born in the first place.”

“I never asked to be born in the first place.”

“Extenuating circumstance to be mentioned on Judgment Day: We never asked to be born in the first place.”

“Unk shook his head vaguely. He could think of no apt condensation of his adventures for the obviously ritual mood. Something great was plainly expected of him. He was not up to greatness. He exhaled noisily, letting the congregation know that he was sorry to fail them with his colorlessness. ‘I was a victim of a series of accidents,’ he said. He shrugged. ‘As are we all,’ he said. The cheering and dancing began again.”

“He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next”

“If somebody says 'I love you' to me, I feel as though I had a pistol pointed at my head. What can anybody reply under such conditions but that which the pistol holder requires? 'I love you, too'.”

“Sometimes I wonder if he wasn't born dead. I never met a man who was less interested in the living. Sometimes I think that's the trouble with the world: too many people in high places who are stone-cold dead.”