“I'm just going to stay here, in the darkness under the arch. I can hear you all out there, trip-trapping, trip-trapping over my bridge.Oh yes, I can hear you.But I'm not coming out.”

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.”

“I've been here before and will come again, but I'm not going this trip through.”

“And if you can find any way out of our culture, then that's a trap too. Just wanting to get out of the trap reinforces the trap.”

“neon sign in red letters EXIT TO HELL…A walks under the arch….she seems not to notice where she is going….Just as the angels are preparing to carry the arch away B makes a desperate dash at it and dives through. Everything blacks out… What happens when you start the downward trip?...Of course there isn’t a hope of ever getting out again into the light. Once you’re on your way down, the machinery takes charge of you, you’re caught, trapped, finished for good and all…you might just as well give in and pluck the cruel thorn of hope out of your heart.”

“I'm over the hill for come-on lines. On a quiet day, I can hear my liver rotting. For exercise, I fall down.”