“Perhaps it would have been better if he had killed me; my life is spoilt.”

“If I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one.”

“had my books been any worse I would not have been invited to Hollywood and if they had been any better I would not have come.”

“I keep wishing you had had a better life...a different life. But a different life would have made you a different Blue." He looked at me then. "And that would be the biggest tragedy of all.”

“It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.”

“It would perhaps not be amiss to point out that he had always tried to be a good dog. He had tried to do all the things his MAN and his WOMAN, and most of all his BOY, had asked or expected of him. He would have died for them, if that had been required. He had never wanted to kill anybody. He had been struck by something, possibly destiny, or fate, or only a degenerative nerve disease called rabies. Free will was not a factor.”