“It may have seemed like an insane thing to do at the time, but somehow...staying in New York would have been even crazier.”

“That's how New York looked: like a gorgeous, easy thing to have, even for me.”

“Have you thought about going insane?" It would seem like a reasonable thing to do, given his circumstances."Did once. Got boring, so I snapped out of it.”

“It's the whole country that makes or breaks a thing like this. New York has very little to do with it. Now if it were a play, it would be different. New York does make or break a play; but it doesn't make or break a book; it doesn't make or break a magazine. The great mass of the readers are outside of New York and the rural districts are what we have got to go for. They don't read much in New York; they write and talk about what they've written. Don't you worry.”

“I would not be dying if it were not for her. I would have stayed home, as I have always stayed home, and I would have been safe, and I would have done the one thing I have always wanted to do, which is to grow up.”

“Things have changed very much, several times, since I grew up, and, like everyone in New York except the intellectuals, I have led several lives and I still lead some of them.”