“They say that that's a difficult task, that nothing's amusing that isn't spiteful," he began with a smile. "But I'll try. Get me a subject. It all lies in the subject. If a subject's given me, it's easy to spin something round it. I often think that the celebrated talkers of the last century would have found it difficult to talk cleverly now. Everything clever is so stale… ”

“I have also figured out that for many people death is a difficult subject, not at all as simple as it is for me.”

“Subject and object are not as distinct as most people think. If the boundary separating the two isn't clear-cut to begin with, it is not such a difficult task to intentionally shift back and forth from one to the other.”

“Thinking of something to say is difficult when you want to be perceived as clever!”

“you have quite dampened by spirit and eagerness, and left me exhausted before I could strike a blow. There are two reasons for this: first, your cleverness in treating the subject with such remarkable and consistent moderation as to make it impossible for me to be angry with you; and secondly, the luck or chance or fate by which you say nothing on this important subject that has not been said before.”

“I have two. You'll answer them, and then we'll be all done with this subject.' 'Hardly, but go ahead.' Somewhere between being angry with me, then trying to seduce me, he settled on being amused. I would rather the anger.”