“I have been taking stock of my 50 years since I left Wichita in 1922 at the age of 15 to become a dancer with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything -- spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking.And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying.' I tried with all my heart.”

“In my dreams I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.”

“For two extraordinary years I have been working on it - learning to write - but mostly learning how to tell the truth. At first it is quite impossible. You make yourself better than anybody, then worse than anybody, and when you finally come to see you are 'like' everybody - that is the bitterest blow of all to the ego. But in the end it is only the truth, no matter how ugly or shameful, that is right, that fits together, that makes real people, and strangely enough - beauty...”

“Tom is back on a flight at 6:15 P.M. That is 6:15. Do you get it? Not 6:00 P.M. but 6:15 P.M. And do you know how many minutes that is? I do. I have also become a Time Lord.”

“I never gave away anything without wishing I had kept it; nor kept anything without wishing I had given it away.”

“I could love you, I could kill you. I want this. This is how I make my mark, this is where I plant my flag, this is how I stake my claim, this is how I deny you, this is how I claim you, this is what you owe me, this is what I am taking, this is how I know I'm alive.”

“If I ever bore you, it'll be with a knife.”