“He wished someone in the course of history had thought of striking that word and all its derivatives from the English Language - happy, happier, happiest, happiness. What the devil did the words really mean anyway? Why not just the word pleasure, which was far more... well, pleasant.”

“And of course the word love has many shades of meaning, as do many, many of the words in our living, breathing language”

“He wished he understood women better. It was a well-known fact that they did not mean half of what they said.But which half did they mean?”

“Why say something," he asked her, "if your words mean nothing?”

“He knew he was alive when he was with her, whatever the devil that meant.Whatever the devil it did mean, it made all the difference.And he was not even sure what that meant.”

“Why do I want to run from happiness?”

“As he had once said to someone in England, though he did not care to remember whom, he had liked the sight of the sea because it represented his escape from England. And he had escaped.But she had said that perhaps it was from himself he wished to escape and that it could not be done. For wherever he went, he must inevitably take himself along too.”