“ease up. the day was rued when we came upon it, or when it came upon us, and beheld us marring the horizon, sitting here like unconquerable savages, men missing their dogs and talking pointlessly unless talk to the dead. let's sharpen something.”

“When most of us talk to our dogs, we tend to forget that they're not people.”

“The afternoon slipped away while we talked -- she talked brightly when any subject came up that interested her -- and it was the last hour of day -- that grave, still hour when the movement of life seems to droop and falter for a few precious minutes -- that brought us the thing I had dreaded silently since my first night in the house.”

“It ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love.”

“That's one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we can all talk about when we don't want to talk about ourselves.”

“We men are fascinated by the things we don't really understand. It gives us something to think and talk about: like females, they drive us nuts.”